ZENICA, Bosnia and Herzegovina
Rescuers were working Friday to reach 34 miners still trapped in a coal mine in Bosnia and Herzegovina, part of which collapsed after a 3.5 magnitude earthquake hit the region Thursday night.
Mehmed Oruc, a union leader at the Zenica coal mine, said rescue teams were about reach the miners who were working more than 500 meters underground when the collapse occurred.
"[....] They have enough air and are alive" Oruc said.
Zenica is a town nearly 53 kms northwest of Sarajevo, the Bosnian capital.
"It is very important not to spread panic and do everything to free miners safely. The most important [thing] is that they are alive." Federal Prime Minister Nermin Niksic told reporters after arriving at the collapse-hit mine.
There were reportedly 56 workers who were inside the mine during the earthquake and 22 of them were able to escape.
Sinan Husic, a member of the rescue team, said that some of the stranded miners suffered "non-life threatening" injuries and that "all of the [trapped] miners are alive and well."
Family members of the miners gathered at the entrance of the mine awaiting news.
"We believe they lie, perhaps the whole second shift of miners are trapped deep inside the mine, and all what the director of the mine say that they are working on the excavation," Alisa Alic, wife of one of the trapped miners, told the Anadolu Agency.
The Zenica coal mine was the site of one of the greatest mining tragedies in the Bosnian history when 39 miners were killed in a gas explosion in 1982.
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