Tragic coal mine accident in Spain's Asturias claims five lives, four injured

Five miners were killed and four others injured in a coal mine accident in the northern Spanish region of Asturias, the regional emergency services said.

Two more workers were unharmed.

The incident took place at 9:32 am local time (0732 GMT) when a machine malfunctioned inside the mine in Degana. Emergency services dispatched three helicopters and two ambulances to the site.

According to The Guardian, officials had earlier said two people were missing but they now believe everyone has been accounted for.

While the cause of the explosion has not been confirmed, emergency services said they had been alerted to an “incident” involving “a problem with a machine”.

The injured were transported to hospitals in nearby cities, with two being airlifted by helicopter. They sustained burns and, in one case, a head injury.

Spain’s Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez expressed his “sincere condolences” to the victims’ families and wished the injured a “speedy recovery” in a message on X.

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Adrián Barbón, the head of the regional government of Asturias, announced two days of mourning “as a sign of respect for the deceased.”

Mining has been a significant industry in Asturias, a densely forested mountainous region, for centuries. In 1995, an explosion at a mine near the town of Mieres resulted in the deaths of 14 people.

With inputs from agencies