30 die after blast in Indian mine

Patna: Rescuers found the bodies of 30 miners who were killed following an explosion and gas leak in a coal mine in eastern India, an official said.

Rescue workers were searching for 24 other trapped miners, but chances of finding any survivors are bleak, said Partho Bhattacharya, chairman of the state-owned Bharat Coking Coal Ltd, which owns the mine.

The explosion and leak occurred on Wednesday night at the mine located about 150km west of Ranchi, the capital of Jharkhand state.

The miners were trapped at a depth of 200 metres, Bhattacharya said. A pocket of natural methane gas, apparently opened by the explosion, began leaking out just after the blast, he said. "Only a miracle can save them," said Arjun Munda, the state's top elected official. The state government will pay Rs100,000 (Dh8,333) to each of the families of those trapped in the mine, he said.

Separately, the federal government promised to give Rs300,000 (Dh25,000) to families of those who have died. Federal Coal and Mines Minister Shibu Soren ordered a probe into the accident and said at least one member from the family of a dead miner will be given a government job.

Two rescue teams have entered the mine and succeeded in reopening air vents, Bhattacharya told The Associated Press.

Three people managed to escape and were hospitalised, Rajesh said.

The three suffered burn injuries, indicating there could be a fire inside the mine. "However, they lost consciousness and were hospitalised and could not be questioned," Press Trust of India news agency quoted Bal Kishan Munda, a local administrator, as saying.

Fires, explosions and floods are common in Indian mines, with hundreds of workers dying each year.

Dhanbad is known as India's coal capital.

Four teams were drilling holes into the mine to make their way to the trapped miners, with whom no contact had been established since the tunnel collapsed late on Wednesday night.

"The explosion was so massive that a one-tonne steel trolley was flung out of the tunnel," said a rescue official. Hundreds of residents, including weeping relatives and fellow mine workers, crowded around the accident site.

The safety manager for Bharat Coking Coal Ltd told AFP the fumes in the air after the explosion made chances of survival slim. "It is very difficult to survive in this poisonous air," B. Ramarao told AFP by telephone from the accident site. Carbon monoxide readings taken in the shaft after the explosion showed the deadly gas was present at levels that could cause death.