The death toll from two methane gas explosions at a mine in Neuvik in southern Poland rose to five following rescuers recovered the body of a worker trapped inside the mine, Bloomberg News Agency reported.
A search for seven missing persons is still underway.
The accident may have affected 42 people who were working in the area, where an explosion occurred shortly following midnight on Tuesday.
The mine is operated by coke producer JSWSA, which is the largest of its kind in Europe.
More than twenty injured in the blast are receiving treatment in hospitals.
Visiting the site of the accident, Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said that at least one of those who died was a member of the rescue team.
Morawiecki said the rescue team is working to find a way to reach the site where people are still stuck on both sides, without endangering the rescue teams’ lives.
And the Polish news agency “BAP” reported earlier in the day that three miners had died, and the fourth had breathed his last due to injuries following being taken to hospital.
Contact is still cut off with seven rescue workers who were among the first group that descended through a 1,000-meter-deep ventilation hole, to help the workers following the first explosion. They were trapped underground when the second explosion occurred at regarding three o’clock.
The public prosecutor’s office in the nearby city of Gliwice is investigating the cause of the accident.
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