Rescue efforts suspended for seven trapped in Polish coal mine after explosions in shaft

Rescuers suspended efforts to reach seven people trapped in a coal mine in southern Poland, after methane gas explosions injured 10 of the rescuers in a shaft overnight, the crisis management team said on Friday.

Five miners were killed in the initial explosion on Wednesday, and 25 were hospitalized, according to JSW, the company that owns the Pniowek coal mine in Pawlowice.

The seven missing people were trapped in a shaft at a depth of around 1,000 metres (3,300 feet).

The rising concentration of methane underground had become too dangerous, JSW Chief Executive Tomasz Cudny told reporters.

“It’s a very difficult decision,” Cudny said after the rescue operations were suspended.

(By Marek Strzelecki; Editing by Simon Cameron-Moore)