Four miners missing after a tremor hit a southern Polish coal mine on Saturday are being transported to the surface though they show no signs of life, a mine official said on Tuesday.
Marcin Golebiowski, director of works at the Zofiowka coal mine in Silesia, had told a press briefing earlier on Tuesday that a rescue team had reached an injured miner shortly before 15:00.
He said later that the search for the remaining three missing colliers had ended in three bodies being found and that the families had been informed.
“The families of these workers have already been informed that these workers are being transported with no signs of life,” Golebiowski said, adding that from the start the families had received medical and psychological support.
Prosecutors will now look into the circumstances of the accident.
The Zofiowka mine was hit by a tremor, accompanied by a methane discharge, at 03:40 on Saturday, some 900 metres underground, forcing dozens of workers to flee the site. Ten miners, however, were unaccounted for at that time. Six were later confirmed dead.
“After a 90-hour operation, the rescue services found all the missing miners who had lost contact after a high-energy shock on the sidewalk of the D4a on Saturday morning. The last four miners were found in a reservoir near the forehead of the coalface. Three injured are transported to the surface, a fourth miner is taken out of the reservoir by rescue workers under a conveyor belt,” the company informed on Facebook.