Odisha: 1 dead, several feared trapped after landslide at coal mine

Bhubaneswar, July 24:One person has been killed and several others are believed to be trapped in a landslide at a Coal India Ltd mine in Odisha, as reported by Reuters.

The incident took place late Tuesday and the open mine which has a production capacity of 20,000 tonnes a day, has been shut since.

"It will take at least a week to resume operations," a spokesperson told Reuters.

Earlier in December, 2018, at least 15 miners were trapped in an illegal "rat-hole" coal mine in the northeastern state of Meghalaya.

Thousands of workers in Meghalaya, including children, have been killed in the so-called rat-hole mines.

India is one of the most dangerous countries to be a coal miner, with one worker dying every seven days on average in 2018 in mines operated by state-run Coal India and Singreni Collieries Co Ltd, according to government data.