MINE EXPLOSION

Southland Times, Issue 22214, 5 January 1934, Page 5

MINE EXPLOSION

OVER 120 MEN TRAPPED

ALL MEANS OF ESCAPE DESTROYED

HOPE ABANDONED

(United Press Assn.—Telegraph Copyright.) Pragruc, January 3.

Over 120 miners were trapped at Dux following a firedamp explosion. The entrances to three mines connected by underground' passages were destroyed and all means of escape were cut off. A rescue party recovered four bodies after working under the greatest difficulty and continually being overcome.

A later message states that the explosion shook houses. Five persons were injured when a building collapsed. Fire followed the explosion, which destroyed the lift shafts, cutting . off escape. A squad of rescuers got into the pit by means of a ventilating shaft and 16 bodies were recovered, but fire forced the withdrawal of the rescuers. It is feared that over 120 are entombed. No signals were heard and hope has been abandoned. It is believed that they must have been asphyxiated. There is some doubt about the number of casualties, the lowest number given being 132. The disaster is attributed to an explosion cither of firedamp or explosives used in mining.

FOUR MEN ESCAPE

WEEPING WOMEN AT PITHEAD.

(United Press Assn.—Telegraph Copyright.) (Rec. 7.10 p.m.) London, January 4. The Prague correspondent of the British United Press states that a tragic crowd waits vainly at the pithead for the rescued men. The rescuers struggled against desperate obstacles and ten were severely injured or gassed and sent to hospital. The ventilation system has almost completely broken down and an auxiliary system is now being operated. The explosion forced the cage from the pit bottom to the pithead, where it was wrecked. Telephone lines were destroyed, so there is no possibility of communicating with the entombed miners.

Four men made a thrilling escape, climbing slippery ladders hundreds of feet to the surface. They were sent to hospital severely gassed and unable to give an account of the plight of their comrades. Crowds waited in a _ cold drizzle, weeping women with little children clutching their skirts hoping against hope. The pit is named Nelson 111. after the British sea hero. It is situated at Nossegg, near Dux. It is one of the most modern equipped for safety. It was flooded in 1880, 1887 and 1892, necessitating heavy capital expenditure before operations could be resumed.