At least 10 missing after second accident at Polish coal mine in days

Ten people were missing Saturday after an accident at a coal mine in southern Poland, the pit owner said, the second such incident to strike in just days.

“Rescuers are without contact with 10 people,” at the mine in Zofiowka, the JSW company said in a statement.

A tremor shook the mine at 3:40 a.m. (0140 GMT), sparking a methane leak, the company said.

In 2018, five miners were killed in an earthquake that struck the same mine.

JSW is also the owner of a mine in Pniowek some 230 kilometers (140 miles) south, where an accident on Wednesday killed five and left seven missing.

The search for the seven was called off on Friday because conditions in the pit were too dangerous for rescuers, JSW said.

Analysis of the situation “has forced us to abandon the rescue operation undertaken to evacuate the seven miners” still trapped, JSW company chief Tomasz Cudny told reporters on Friday, after a blast ripped through the pit, injuring 10, as rescuers were trying to install a new ventilation duct.

“It’s a very tough decision,” Cudny said.

“It would be irresponsible to send rescuers into so dangerous an area,” Cudny said.

Poland, which relies on coal for most of its power, has faced several other mining accidents in recent years.

In addition to the 2018 accident in Zofiowka, last year two men were killed and two others injured when an underground wall collapsed at the southern Myslowice-Wesola mine.