Colombia: Death toll in coal mine blast rises to seven

The death toll due to an explosion in a coal mine in Colombia rose to seven on Friday (April 21) with the discovery of four more bodies, according to Alvaro Farfan, the head of the firefighting department in the central Cundinamarca region. The explosion occurred through the mine overnight Wednesday into Thursday in Cucunuba municipality. According to a report by the news agency AFP early Saturday, authorities said that they suspected pockets of gas trapped in the mine detonated.

Initially, rescue teams found three bodies, and four workers were reported to be missing. But on Friday, the four workers were found dead and the total number of deaths rose to seven. On social media, videos showed billowing from a sinkhole while people dressed in civilian clothes approached carefully.

Colombia, which is Latin America's largest coal producer, has reported frequent mining incidents in the past, particularly in illegal mines in Cundinamarca and other parts of the country's centre and northeast.

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This explosion in the Cucunuba municipality comes more than a month after an explosion was reported on March 14 in several adjoining coal mines in a rural area of Sutatausa. Twenty-one miners died in the explosion. This was one of the worst tragedies in Colombia in recent years, AFP reported.

According to the national mining agency, there were 117 accidents at mines in Colombia last year killing 146 people. And the deadliest accident was in 2010 when 73 people were killed in a mine explosion in the country's northwest.

(With inputs from agencies)

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