Three feared dead as India sends divers, helicopters to rescue trapped miners

Three miners are feared dead after being trapped in a flooded coal mine in India’s northeastern Assam state, authorities said Tuesday, as rescue teams worked through the night to reach a total of nine men still trapped underground.

Rescue teams have spotted three bodies inside the flooded mine but have not yet been able to recover them, the local government said in a statement.

The Indian army has deployed divers, helicopters, and engineers to assist in the rescue efforts in the hilly Dima Hasao district, where the miners have been trapped since Monday.

“The mine got flooded yesterday — the source was internal. They (the miners) probably hit a water channel, and water came out and flooded it,” said Mayank Kumar, the district police chief in Dima Hasao.

Rescue teams from the army, as well as national and state disaster relief forces, are working to reach the trapped men, Kumar said.

Photos shared by the army on social media showed rescuers using ropes, cranes, and other equipment at the edge of a large vertical mine shaft.

Coal mine accidents are common in India’s remote northeastern region. In 2019, at least 15 miners were killed while working in an illegal coal mine in the neighboring Meghalaya state after it was flooded by water from a nearby river.