All miners inside Dhanbad mine dead

The bodies of all but one of the 50 miners killed in an explosion in a coal mine in Jharkhand's Dhanbad district on Wednesday have been pulled out, the leader of rescue operations said in Dhanbad on Friday night.

The bodies of 49 miners were taken out of the mine at Bhatdih while efforts were on bring out the remaining one, General Manager (Jharia) of Tata Steel C H Dinakar, who is leading four rescue teams from the company, said.

Bharat Coking Coal Limited Director (Technical) D K Basu said the deaths occurred when the miners inhaled poisonous gas in the mine after the explosion.

Twenty-five of the bodies have been handed over to the next of kin, BCCL CMD Partho S Bhattacharya said.

"BCCL has started distributing compensation and letters of employment to the next of kin of the dead miners. Extensive arrangements have been made for providing relief and other support to the affected families," he added.

The miners were trapped inside Nagda colliery of BCCL at Bhatdih on September 6 after an explosion.

A total of 57 miners were inside at the time of the accident, but some managed to escape.