Two mining accidents in the department of Boyaca, northeast of Colombia’s capital Bogota, have left three workers dead and one trapped, newspaper El Tiempo reported Tuesday.
The most recent accident took place in a mine near San Mateo as the result of an accumulation of gases. The two workers entered the tunnel early Tuesday morning, before an explosion fatally wounded one and trapped the other.
Though the injured man was taken to a health center, he died minutes after arrival.
Authorities and workers alike await the arrival of rescue workers to aid the 22-year-old who is trapped in the tunnel.
A second accident occurred approximately 24 hours earlier in San Isidro, also outside the Boyaca municipality, killing two men. Authorities are unsure how events occurred, as the mine was supposed to be closed two weeks earlier for operating illegally. Rescue workers managed, late Monday night, to remove the bodies of the two workers.
Seven miners in Boyaca have lost their lives in mining accidents so far this year.
A gold mining accident in central Colombia, also Monday, left one dead, and another missing.
