An accident in a shaft of a small-scale coal mine in northern Mexico left seven miners trapped. The department said the mine was apparently hit by some sort of collapse and flood.
The mine, located in the municipality of Muzquiz, appears to be an open, deep and narrow type of coal pit with steep earth walls. The area is located approximately 80 miles (130 kilometers) southwest of Eagle Pass, Texas. Rescue operations continue to find the miners. Coahuila’s small-scale coal mines have been hit by accidents in the past. A methane gas explosion in February 2006 in a coal mine in Sabinas, Coahuila, killed 65 miners. Rescuers recovered the bodies of two miners but tons of wood, rock and metal, as well as toxic gases, hindered the recovery of the others.
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