Six killed, two injured after explosion at Indonesian coal mine
- Five people managed to escape the mineshaft in Suwahlunto district after the methane gas explosion, two of them suffering from severe burns
- Mining accidents are frequent across the archipelago, in coal mines that’s mainly due to fine particles of coal dust coming into contact with a source of heat
Six people were killed and two others injured on Friday after a methane gas explosion at a coal mine in Indonesia’s West Sumatra province, officials said.
Five people managed to escape the mineshaft in Suwahlunto district after the blast, two of them suffering from severe burns, said Rumainur, an official at the provincial civil protection agency.
There have been similar accidents in the area, mainly due to fine particles of coal dust coming into contact with a source of heat, provincial police spokesman Dwi Sulistiawan said.
Sawahlunto was built by Dutch colonisers as a coal town in the 19th century.
‘Coal, this gift from God’: inside the illegal people’s mines of Indonesia
In April, 12 women working in an illegal gold mine in Indonesia’s North Sumatra province were killed when a cliff collapsed and triggered a landslide that buried them, police said.
Last year six miners died when an illegal gold mine collapsed in Parigi Moutong on the island of Sulawesi.
In 2020, 11 miners in Sumatra were killed in a landslide triggered by heavy rains.
Mining accidents are frequent across the archipelago due to landslides, especially during the monsoon in the summer months.
Unlicensed mines are common across mineral-rich Indonesia, with abandoned sites attracting locals who scrounge for leftover gold ore without using proper safety equipment.
In January, President Joko Widodo ordered thousands of mining, plantation and forest-use permits to be revoked.
In August the government announced plans to redistribute the land to other companies, saying: “We want new entrepreneurs in these regions, so there will be balance.”
Additional reporting by Agence France-Presse, Reuters
