Don't miss

Replay


LATEST SHOWS

MEDIAWATCH

Press reactions to Assad's "red carpet" visit to Moscow

Read more

THE DEBATE

Assad in Moscow: Warm embrace or kiss of death? (part 2)

Read more

THE DEBATE

Assad in Moscow: Warm embrace or kiss of death? (part 1)

Read more

PEOPLE & PROFIT

Should we believe China's growth statistics?

Read more

THE INTERVIEW

David Petraeus: Syria is a 'geopolitical Chernobyl'

Read more

THE DEBATE

The Calais quagmire: Migrant crisis tests EU solidarity (part 2)

Read more

THE DEBATE

The Calais quagmire: Migrant crisis tests EU solidarity (part 1)

Read more

ENCORE!

The Fiac art fair frenzy

Read more

FOCUS

Polish government risks losing election despite good economic record

Read more

Europe

Explosion kills five in Romania's Uricani mine

Text by News Wires

Latest update : 2011-02-05

An explosion killed five workers in Romania's south-west Uricani mine Saturday, leaving no survivors. According to officials, the five had been finishing an electrical installation when the blast happened.

AFP - An explosion on Saturday killed five workers in the Uricani mine in southwest Romania, a mine spokesperson told AFP.

"There are no survivors, five people are dead," the spokesperson Oana Stoicuta said.

"It's a tragedy down there...," the mayor of Uricani, Danut Buhaescu, told Mediafax news agency.

An official, Horia Radu, previously said the five were electricians working on an electrical installation.

The blast occurred at a depth of around 400 metres (1,300 feet), mine officials said.

"At 14:30 (12:30 GMT) the workers said they had finished their job but some ten minutes later we smelt smoke coming out of the ventilation system," Stoicuta said. A rescue team found the bodies five hours later.

No other workers were in the mine at the time of the accident because it was the weekend.

Interior Minister Train Igas arrived at the mine Saturday and met the relatives of the victims.

The Uricani coal mine is situated in the Jiu Valley, the most important mining area still operating in Romania. The mine employs some 800 people and is one of the oldest in the country.

Economy ministry official Florin Staicu said Saturday the mine would be closed down by 2018 as part of a mining sector restructuring plan.

Saturday's accident is the most serious since two blasts in the Petrila mine, also in the Jui Valley region, in November 2008, killed 13 people.

Working conditions in the mines in this region have regularly been criticised in Romania.

 

Date created : 2011-02-05

COMMENT(S)