29 survive mine collapse in Bosnia, five believed dead

Sarajevo, Sep 5 (IANS/WAM) Rescue workers Friday pulled 29 miners out of a coal mine in Zenica, Bosnia, after it had collapsed Thursday in central Bosnia. The officials halted rescue efforts, believing that five men who remained deep underground were dead.

The 29 survivors spent the night trapped more than 500 metres below the surface when the Raspotocje coal mine collapsed Thursday evening following a gas explosion triggered by a minor 3.5-magnitude earthquake in Zenica, 70 km northwest of the capital Sarajevo.

Twenty-six miners were taken to a hospital, six of them seriously injured, but none suffered life-threatening injuries, doctors said.

This is the third incident at the Zenica coal mine this year. Sixteen miners were hurt in two previous gas explosions, the most recent less than four weeks ago. In 1982, 39 miners died in a gas explosion at the mine, one of the biggest mining tragedies in Bosnia's history.

--IANS/WAM

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