Rescuers in India are racing against time to free miners trapped in a flooded coal mine in the northeastern state of Assam.
Three of the nine men inside are feared dead, Reuters reported, after the state government said rescue teams had spotted some bodies they were unable to reach.
The men were trapped on Monday morning after water flooded the rat hole mine, which is a narrow hole dug by hand to extract coal.
Despite a ban on such mining in India since 2014, small-scale illegal mines continue to operate in Assam and other northeastern states.
Divers, helicopters and engineers were deployed to help rescue the trapped men, with state and national disaster response forces also assisting in the effort.
On Monday evening, Assam Director General of Police GP Singh said the authorities were establishing the exact number of people who had been captured.
Reports say more than a dozen miners managed to escape, with initial reports suggesting “the numbers would be in the single digits”.
The mine is located in the hilly area of Dima Hasao district.
A senior police official in the district, Mayank Kumar Jha, told Reuters the area was very “remote” and “difficult to access”.
Mine-related disasters are not uncommon in Northeast India.
In December 2018, at least 15 men were trapped in an illegal mine in the neighboring state of Meghalaya after it was flooded by water from a nearby river.
Five miners managed to escape, but the rescue of the others continued until the first week of March of the following year. Only two bodies were recovered.
In January 2024, six workers died after a fire broke out in a coal mine in the state of Nagaland.
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