“Words get stuck in my throat because we already know that five people are dead and seven remain trapped inside the mine,” Mateusz Morawiecki told reporters at the Pniówek mine, as quoted by state news agency PAP.
“More than 20 others are in hospital after suffering heavy burns,” he added.
“I extend my deepest condolences to the families of the victims, and … I would like to say that the thoughts of the entire country are with you,” Morawiecki said.
Two blasts, five dead
Four miners and one rescue worker lost their lives as a result of what appeared to have been two methane explosions at the Pniówek mine, officials told reporters.
The first blast took place shortly after midnight on Wednesday as 42 miners were working on a night shift, the PAP news agency reported.
A relief operation was launched but as rescue teams looked for three missing workers, a second blast apparently occurred at 3 a.m., officials told the media.
By 10 a.m., 21 of the 42 miners had been transferred to hospitals, most of them with burns of the respiratory tract, the local ambulance service and health officials told reporters.
At his briefing, Morawiecki said emergency workers had managed to locate those trapped inside the mine and were waiting for safe conditions to resume the rescue effort.
The Pniówek coal mine, based in Pawłowice in Poland's southern Upper Silesia region, is part of the state-run JSW group, the country’s biggest coal producer.
(pm/gs)
Source: IAR, PAP, jsw.pl