According to police, many workers were fear trapped as three abandoned coal mines collapsed during illegal mining in Jharkhand’s Dhanbad district.

 The first incident happened at Kapasara outsourcing project of Eastern Coalfield Limited (ECL) in the Nirsa police station area around 5 pm on Monday, they said.

The second incident took place in Chach Victoriya of Bharat Coking Coal Limited (BCCL) in Nirsa on Monday night, while the third incident happened on Tuesday morning at Gopinathpur open cast mines of the ECL in Panchet police station area, police said. 

Rescue operations with heavy machinery are underway at the three mines, officials said.

These three incidents took place during illegal mining and only the coal companies can specify the number of people trapped inside, said Superintendent of Police (Dhanbad-Rural) Reeshma Ramesan. “I can’t say the number of casualties and injured. We are verifying the details and would say after getting reports. Our teams have rushed there," she said.

A PTI report based on statements of concerned officers claimed that “fearing police action, families of the illegal miners are yet to report to the authorities if there was any person missing”.

“Villagers also managed to rescue some of those who could come out of the debris, before the colliery officials or police reached the spot.”