Cave-in leaves 2 miners dead, 1 missing and 12 injured at a coal mine in Poland

WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Two miners were killed and one remains missing after a cave-in at the Myslowice-Wesola coal mine in southern Poland early Tuesday in which 12 other miners were hurt, mining authorities said Tuesday.

The cave-in happened around 3:30 a.m. some 870 meters (2,800 feet) underground in an area where 15 miners were working, said Rajmund Horst, the deputy head of the company that runs the mine.

He said two of the miners located by rescuers and brought to the surface were declared dead, while one was being taken to the hospital. Eleven other miners were earlier brought to the surface with various injuries. Nine of them remain hospitalized.

Rescuers were still searching for one missing miner but had no contact with him. Six teams of rescuers were working in the area.

The accident happend near the coal face, an area especially exposed to cave-ins or explosions of methane gas, which is present in the rock in many Polish coal mines.

It is the second cave-in at the Myslowice-Wesola mine this year, following one on April 17 that killed one miner. Two other coal mine workers were killed in accidents inside other mines in Poland this year, while in 2023, 15 miners were killed in on-the job accidents.