New Delhi (Sputnik) — At least 13 people are feared dead after they were trapped inside a coal pit in the northeastern state of Meghalaya. They were trapped on Thursday evening as gallons of water from an unknown source flooded the pit in an extremely short time leaving no avenues for the people to escape.
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"Some seventeen people went into the mine pit which is around 300 feet deep. Four people, fortunately, escaped from the mine, which was flooded with water coming in suddenly from an unknown source. The rest of the 13 people are still trapped inside the mine. Until the water level comes down to a manageable depth of 40 feet, we cannot go inside for rescue. The possibility of their survival very less", SK Shastri, the commandant from the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) told Sputnik.
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Two water pump sets are deployed to pump out water from the mines. Seventy NDRF officials along with 20 State Disaster Response Force have been deployed to conduct the rescue operation.
A similar accident took place in 2012 but in another part of the same state. In the 2012 incident, some 15 miners lost their lives after they were trapped inside a flooded coal mine.