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Czech coal mine tremor kills two polish miners

Other News Materials 23 November 2008 17:21 (UTC +04:00)

Two Polish miners died and three were slightly injured when a coal mine in north-eastern Czech Republic in which they were working suffered a seismic movement, the mining company's owner said Sunday.

The movement occurred before midnight Saturday as 21 Polish miners were extracting coal in the underground mine, which belongs to the country's largest mining company OKD, said Vladimir Bystrov, a spokesman for OKD's parent company New World Resources, dpa reported.

The causes of the jolt were not immediately known and an investigation was under way, Bystrov said.

The dead miners, aged 39 and 46, were the first earth-tremor victims in OKD's mines this year, he said. Five other people had so far died in the firm's mines in 2008.

OKD operates coal mines in north-eastern Czech Republic and plans to expand to a southern Polish mine of Debiensko. Its owner NWR listed its shares on the Prague, Warsaw and London stock exchanges earlier this year.

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