Officials say 22 people rescued from mine collapse in Afghanistan. mining news
There were no reports of any casualties after an hours-long rescue operation in Samangan province in northern Afghanistan.
Twenty-two people have been rescued after a mine collapsed in Afghanistan, requiring hours of rescue work to reach them.
The mine collapsed late Saturday night in the Dara-e Sof Payin district of Samangan province in northern Afghanistan.
Esmat Muradi, a spokesman for the province’s governor, Mullah Muhammad Shoaib, initially told the AFP news agency that thirty-two people were trapped.
“Excavators and rescue workers have been working since morning, but unfortunately the path to the mine has not been cleared yet,” he said early Sunday.
Shoaib later said that 22 people had been rescued and it was believed that no other miners would be trapped. He said that there was no death in the incident.
A video of the rescue showed heavy machinery clearing debris and rescue workers working by torchlight to reach trapped people, although locals expressed concern over the lack of professional rescue teams deployed.
Sources familiar with the site had previously expressed doubt that there would be any survivors, citing the presence of gas in the mine, its narrowness and a possible build-up of pressure.
The type of mine involved was not immediately clear, although marble, copper, zinc, lead, gold, gems and coal are commonly mined in Afghanistan, which has been ruled by the Taliban since its 2021 takeover.
However, Afghanistan’s mining industry has long been poorly monitored and fatal accidents are relatively common.
In February 2022, at least 10 miners died after being trapped underground when a coal mine collapsed in the northern province of Baghlan.
In June 2020, seven workers died in a collapse caused by a gas explosion at a mine in Samangan.
And a year earlier, at least 30 people died in a gold mine collapse in Badakhshan province.
Another gold mine collapsed in the province in January last year, although the number of casualties is unknown.
