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RUDA SLASKA - Polish rescuers found 13 more bodies overnight from Tuesday's coal mine disaster, taking the death toll so far to 21, the television news channel TVN24 reported on Thursday.
The channel said the rescuers were searching for two more miners who had been trapped after an underground methane gas explosion at the mine in the town of Ruda Slaska, about 300km southwest of the capital Warsaw.
"The level of the gas has fallen low enough to allow us to renew the rescue effort," Zbigniew Madej, spokesman for state-owned company Polish Coal Co, told the IAR news agency.
He said initial indications were it may take as little as two to three hours to reach the remaining miners.
Officials said the blast appeared to have damaged an underground water pump, flooding the area and leaving little hope that anybody could still be found alive.
- REUTERS
