Emergency services reported this Friday recovering three other bodies in a mine from the department of Norte de Santander on the Venezuelan border, with whom Eight workers still missing, death toll rises to seven. The National Mining Agency’s (ANM) Mine Safety and Rescue Group stated that the recovered bodies have not yet been identified and that the last bodies were delivered to Bocamina at 7:50 PM.
With this latest report, it was known that of the 15 workers affected by the emergency presented at the La Mestiza mine, seven have already died and eight workers are still missing. Authorities also added: misidentification of one of the victims An error has been reported to have been created and it has already been confirmed by legal medicine that the deceased corresponds to Omar Arias and not Víctor Alfonso Sánchez”, referring to one of the victims.
The explosion was caused by methane and coal dust at a mine in El Zulia, an hour and a half from Cúcuta, last Monday. The blast caused the entire main entrance slope to collapse, trapping workers and also releasing high concentrations of carbon monoxide that made it difficult to access the ground to rescue stranded miners. Due to the collapse of the main access, rescue activities were concentrated at the lower vent level, which in turn caused several collapses, as it was not possible to control the methane gas concentrations.