Three people died trapped 900 meters deep, after the collapse Thursday of a gallery in a potash mine in Suria, Catalonia (north-eastern Spain), announced the Catalan regional president.
"We can unfortunately confirm the death of three people who were carrying out work in the mine," Pere Aragonès told reporters at the scene.
He specified that they were "three young people of about thirty years old" whose bodies could be "recovered and identified".
One of them had been a trainee for a few days, another had worked in the company for almost six months and the third for just over three years, Patricio Chacana, general counsel for the company ICL, told the press. Iberia which operates the mine.
Two of them were master's students at the Polytechnic School of Engineering in Manresa, and another doctoral student in geology at the University of Barcelona, the two establishments said in respective press releases.
Before the announcement of their death was made official, the regional authorities had said they "feared the worst" for these three "employees" of the mine, in the words of Joan Ignasi Elena, responsible for the Interior portfolio within of the regional government.
The communication of the local authorities around the fate of these three people was marked by an oddity, Pere Aragonès having announced on Twitter in the morning "the death of the three minors", before deleting his tweet a few minutes later.
According to the firefighters, the three victims found themselves "trapped about 900 meters deep".
The accident took place shortly before 9 a.m. local time (0800 GMT), said the regional police, which had deployed specialized units to participate in the search operations, including a canine unit.
A mine employee, Carlos Arnaldo, explained to the press that the three victims were performing "a task that they have to do every day". He stressed, before their deaths were confirmed, that it was "difficult" to imagine that they could have survived.
"Sometimes the mine does not warn. The roof collapses and there is nothing to do," he said.
Speaking of "terrible news", the Minister of Labor, Yolanda Díaz, expressed her "solidarity with the families and colleagues of the employees who were victims of a collapse in the Suria mine".
Responsible for companies in the Catalan regional government, Roger Torrent assured, for his part, that the last control of the mine by the authorities had taken place "three weeks ago" and that "no irregularity" had been detected.
Justice has opened an investigation, said Pere Aragonès.
This potash mine belongs to ICL Iberia, the Spanish subsidiary of the Israeli group ICL.
On its website, this company based in Suria, a town about 80 km northwest of Barcelona, says it employs 1,100 people and is "the only company producing potassium salts in Spain".
It has two mines in this area "which represent", according to it, "one of the most important potash reserves in Western Europe".
Two miners died in an accident at the same Suria mine in December 2013 following a gallery collapse, according to local media.
The most serious mining accident in Spain in recent years took place in October 2013. Six people died and five were injured due to a firedamp explosion at the Santa Lucía coal mine in the province of León ( North West). The trial of the company's leaders opened recently.
In August 1995, fourteen people died following another gas explosion in a mine in the Asturias region (north).
09/03/2023 23:19:00 - Suria (Espagne) (AFP) - © 2023 AFP
