Thirteen miners died and another 10 suffered injuries after a methane explosion at the ČSM hard coal mine in the north-east of the Czech Republic on Thursday. Eleven of the dead were Polish nationals.
The Czech public television said three of the injured were still hospitalized in the city of Ostrava, with one of them in critical condition. The explosion occurred about 800 meters underground.
Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki and Czech counterpart Andrej Babis have offered their condolences to the families of the victims. The two leaders were expected to arrive at the mine on Friday.
OKD managing director Boleslav Kowalczyk confirmed that the search of the scene had to be called off.
“Unfortunately, we have reached a point where it was impossible to move forward, because there was a fire raging and zero visibility,” he said.
Mr. Babis tweeted: “The blast at the CSM mine is a huge tragedy.”
Author: red
