All 50 bodies of trapped miners pulled out

Dhanbad, Sep 9 (UNI) A rescue team today wound up the nearly three-day drill after pulling out all 50 bodies of the trapped miners by late last night whose death was caused by emission of toxic gas, sparked by a huge explosion inside the Bhat-Dih mine of Nagda colliery of BCCL on September 6, about 40 km from here.

After a post-mortem, all 50 bodies were handed over to the respective families last night, BCCL Chairman-cum-Managing Director Partho Bhattacharyya told UNI over phone today.

The post-mortem report attributed the deaths to suffocation and severe burns caused by the explosion.

The BCCL offered Rs 10,750 to each of the victims' families to perform the last rights, Mr Bhattacharyya said.

BCCL Director General (secuirty) Bhaskar Bhattacharyya today said cause of the accident was being ascertained and its report would be submitted to the Ministry.

Rescue team comprised personnel from BCCL, Eastern Coal Field Ltd, CCL, Tata Steel and CISF, he said.

Till September 7 afternoon, the rescue team had a tough time in assessing the exact location of the accident as they had to fight emission of carbon monoxide.

On September 6, altogether 57 miners went to work inside the pit of which one miner came out without informing the authorities.

Of the remaining 56, three sustained injuries which forced them to leave the place.

When the accident occurred, 53 miners were still inside the pit while three managed to come out of the pit with burn injuries. They were rushed to the hospital.

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