A methane explosion at a coal mine in southern Poland on September 18 killed 12 miners and left 15 seriously injured, according to Agence France Presse. About 30 miners were hospitalized after the blast ripped through the Wujek-Slask mine in Ruda Slaska-Kochlowice. Wujek-Slask mine spokesperson Andrzej Bielecki said around 40 miners were underground in the area where the blast occurred at a depth of 1,050 m (3,500 ft). Of those, 29 emerged to the surface and the rest were evacuated, Bielecki said, warning the death toll could rise as several had suffered serious burns. The explosion was the worst for Polish mines since the death of 23 miners in November 2006 in a methane blast at the Halemba mine nearby. Poland’s most recent mine accident involved the death of six miners in a methane explosion at the Borynia mine in southern Poland in June 2008.
