Colombia continues search for three missing miners after six die

BOGOTA, Dec. 6 (Xinhua) -- Rescue workers in the central Colombian department of Boyaca on Wednesday continued to search for three miners trapped after a coal mine explosion in the rural municipality of Corrales. The bodies of six other miners have already been found.

The director of the Boyaca risk management office, German Bermudez, told journalists the explosion took place on Tuesday after the presumed accumulation of methane gas. The blast took place inside the mine in which around a dozen miners were working.

"This continues to be a matter for investigation...by the National Agency of Mines and the CTI (Prosecutor's Technical Investigation Body) which are on the scene, and will certainly establish the facts and those responsible," continued Bermudez.

"However, there are internal problems in the mine that have to do with the concentration of methane and with rockfalls," he concluded.

The blast took place on Tuesday morning around 8.30am and about 60 firefighters, civil defense experts and police are attending the scene. Matters are complicated by a rockfall having taken place between 100-150 meters deep. Enditem