WARSAW, Poland—A miner who was missing after an earthquake shook Poland’s Rydultowy coal mine has been found alive more than two days after the accident that killed one and injured 17 other workers, according to local officials on Saturday.
The office of the provincial governor of the Silesia coal mining region in southern Poland reported that the miner was conscious and was being transported to the surface. An air ambulance was waiting at the colliery’s gate.
“This is fantastic news,” said Marek Wojcik, the provincial governor, on TVN24.
The head of the Polish Coal Mining Group that operates the mine, Leszek Pietraszek, mentioned that rescuers reached the 32-year-old miner around 2 p.m. on Saturday. He was conscious and communicating, but had some difficulties breathing. He received first aid from a doctor who also prepared him for transportation to the surface.
Hundreds of rescuers were involved in the operation and had to be withdrawn from the corridor at times due to the threat of more tremors or dangerous methane gas levels. The rescuers had to sift through the rubble by hand to reach the miner, authorities stated.
Seventy-eight miners were in the vicinity when a magnitude 3.1 tremor struck about 1,200 meters (4,000 feet) below the surface on Thursday afternoon.
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One miner, aged 41, lost his life and 17 others were hospitalized with injuries. Thirteen of the injured individuals have been discharged from the hospital since then.
The tremor caused rocks to be ejected into the corridor at a specific location where the miner was discovered on Saturday.
The mining group has experienced multiple fatal accidents this year. In May, three miners perished in a cave-in at the Myslowice-Wesola colliery, and one miner was killed at the same mine in April.
Two miners lost their lives in separate incidents in 2019 and 2020 in the Rydultowy mine, which was established in 1792 and currently employs approximately 2,000 miners.
Coal mining in Poland is known to be risky, with some mines susceptible to methane gas explosions and cave-ins. The excavation in older mines goes deep underground in search of coal, increasing the dangers of the job. The coal industry is a major employer in Poland, providing around 75,000 jobs.
Last year, 15 miners lost their lives in accidents.
