A powerful underground tremor and methane gas discharge hit a second coal mine on Saturday in southern Poland, forcing dozens of workers to flee the mine and leaving authorities unable to contact 10 other miners still missing, officials said.
The accident at 3:40 a.m. on Saturday at the Borynia-Zofiowka mine occurred 900 metres underground. It was the second colliery accident in just four days in the coal mining region around the city of Jastrzebie-Zdroj, near the Czech border.
Repeat methane blasts since Wednesday at the nearby Pniowek mine have killed five, left seven missing and injured dozens. Both mines are operated by the JSW company.
The company said that 52 workers were in the area of the tremor at the Borynia-Zofiowka mine and 42 of them were able to leave the shaft on their own. A rescue operation has been launched for the 10 missing miners.
Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said on Twitter that this was “devastating news again” from the mining region and that his prayers are with the missing and their relatives.
Poland relies on its own coal and coal imports for almost 70 per cent of its energy needs, drawing criticism from the European Union and environmental groups, who are concerned about CO2 emissions and meeting climate change goals. Most Polish coal mines are in the southern Silesia region.
The Polish government has been scaling down the use of coal and recently announced it would end coal imports from Russia by May, part of Poland’s drive to reduce its dependence on Russian energy in response to Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.
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