MINE EXPLOSION.

Auckland Star, Volume LX, Issue 300, 19 December 1929, Page 7

MINE EXPLOSION.

FIFTY-SEVEN DEAD.

Frightful Tragedy In American

TWO ESCAPE ALIVE.

(United P.A.—Elcctric Telegraph—Copyright)

(Received 9 a.m.)

NEW YORK, December 18,

A message from McAlester, Oklahoma, says 62 miners were entombed after an explosion at noon to-day in the Oldtown coalmine.

The jjoclies of 57 men were found in a gas-filled chamber 5000 ft below the surface. The explosion was a frightful one. Two miners escaped alive. The remainder "were suffocated by gas.

Groups of screaming and sobbing women and children gathered at the entrance to the mine. The majority of the dead miners were married, and they have left nearly 200 children. A lied Cross appropriation of £4000 has been requested for the immediate care of the bereaved.

The mine authorities believe that all the men in the mine are now accounted for. Relief workers, after spending a day in endeavouring to save the miners, turned their efforts to aid the hysterical and grief-stricken families of the mining village, who were interrupted by the explosion in the midst of their preparations to celebrate Christmas.