Vietnam Coal Mine Collapses Killing 2; 10 Who Were Trapped Now OK
A northern Vietnam coal mine has collapsed, killing two miners and trapping 10 others for 13 hours, a coal company official said Wednesday.
The two miners were killed when they tapped into a pocket of water 230 feet underground, unleashing a flood that swept them through the tunnel and caused it to collapse, said Nguyen Manh Dat, director of Dong Bac Coal Mine Corp.
Dong Bac owns the mine in Quang Ninh province, about 120 miles east of the capital, Hanoi.
Rescue workers spent 13 hours Tuesday digging out the 10 survivors, who were uninjured.
Coal mining accidents routinely kill workers in Vietnam each year. Nineteen workers died in 1999 in the country’s worst mining accident, which occurred in Quang Ninh, the country’s main coal-producing province.
