FIVE people were confirmed dead after a pile of waste fell over local people who were trying to lift coal from an abandoned open cast mine owned by the state-run Coal India Limited in the eastern Indian state of Jharkhand, sources in the police said on Wednesday (2).
According to cops, the accident took place early on Tuesday (1) in Gopinathpur in Dhanbad district of the state which is known for its coal mines. The spot is located around 400 kilometres from the state capital of Ranchi.
One top police officer serving the region said the deceased were not professional miners, Reuters reported.
“In that patch, mining work was not going on. Those who died were local coal pickers,” Dhanbad senior superintendent of police Sanjeev Kumar told Reuters.
Though the overall number of accidents at coal mines have decreased in India, yet coal mining remains one of the most dangerous professions in the country.
One coal miner died on the job every 12 days on an average in 2020, according to government data, the report added.
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