Meghalaya miner’s body pulled out after 42 days, 15 workers were trapped
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Rescue officials located the body last week, but it took time to bring it to the surface from inside a crevice. The officials sought guidance from forensic experts.
A Navy rescue team on Thursday pulled out a miner's body from a 370-feet deep flooded coal mine in Meghalaya's East Jaintia Hills district where 14 miners still remain trapped since December 13.
Rescuers have recovered a body from the site of a "rat-hole" mining accident.
The miners were trapped on December 13 when their illegal mine was flooded. The state banned unregulated mining in 2014 but it still goes on in some places.
"We have recovered the body and it is heavily decomposed," said Santosh Kumar Singh, an official from the National Disaster Response Force.
Thousands of workers, including children, have been killed in so-called rat-hole mines, which involve miners crawling into narrow shafts on bamboo ladders to dig for low-quality coal, in Meghalaya.
Rescue officials located the body last week, but it took time to bring it to the surface from inside a crevice. The officials sought guidance from forensic experts.
Families and relatives of the trapped miners have given up hope that any of them will be found alive.
(With inputs from Reuters)