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EPA
Rescue efforts are ongoing
The bodies of 13 people have been recovered from a coal mine which collapsed on Thursday in the eastern Indian state of Jharkhand.
Dozens remain missing and their distraught families are waiting anxiously as rescue efforts continue.
Two men were rescued alive but there were at least 60 working in the Lalmatia open cast mine in Godda district when its wall collapsed.
Three workers died in a similar incident at the site in 2012.
Eastern Coalfields Limited closed the government-owned mine after that incident but later re-opened it, according to reports.
Rescue workers say poor safety standards are responsible, and officials say there may be prosecutions.
“This is not a natural collapse. It is manmade. There are no measures for safety here,” Jai Prakash of the National Disaster Response Force told Kolkata’s Telegraph newspaper.
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AFP
It is feared that many more bodies could be recovered from the rubble
Dense fog has inhibited the work of rescuers, who were only able to enter the mine early on Friday.
Around 29% of India’s coal deposits are situated in Jharkand, one of the country’s poorest areas and the site of a Maoist insurgency.
In 2015, 38 deaths were recorded across 570 mines in India.
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