India: Two miners missing in flooded underground mine

Dhanbad(Jharkhand), Dec 9 (PTI) Two miners are missing in Eastern Coalfields Limited (ECL) Khudiya Kadan mine in Mugma area of the district after water flooded the underground mine, officials said on Wednesday.

The official said four miners were engaged in dewatering the mine on Tuesday. Pump operator Basiya Manjhi (56)and his assistant Manik Bauri (52) were found missing when all of a sudden water flooded the seam of the underground mine at around 4 am.

Professional divers and NDRF teams on Wednesday launched rescue operation for the two missing miners after the local rescue teams failed to trace the two missing miners on Tuesday.

General Manager, ECL Sanctoria, Vibhash Chandra Singh told reporters that besides NDRF teams of Ranchi and Asansol, six member squad of Odisha divers has been pressed into service to rescue two miners trapped in the mines for last 30 hours.

"Besides, we have also pressed in four pumps for pumping out water from seam of Khudia colliery underground mines so that trapped miners could be brought out as soon as possible", he said.

AD Mishra, Director of Directorate General of Mines Safety (DGMS), the mines monitoring body of the country, also reached the spot with his team.

"Our first priority is to bring out missing miners from the underground mine. Thereafter probe would be started", he said.

Samir Tudu, one of the miners, who came out safely from the mine on Tuesday, said: "all of sudden a massive water flow stormed the spot where they were working. He along with Vikash Bhuian managed to come out".