Nine Dead in Coal Mine Explosion in Colombia's Sutatausa

Nine people died in an explosion at a coal mine in Sutatausa, Colombia, in the latest fatal accident to strike the nation's mining sector.

Emergency workers rescued six miners from the shafts in the town north of Bogotá, the capital.

Colombia's national mining agency reported that a buildup of gases likely caused the blast at 16:00 local time (21:00 GMT) on Monday. The agency released a list of recommendations it issued to the mine's operators following an inspection less than a month earlier. That visit had flagged a "potentially dangerous gas build-up."

Many mines in Colombia operate informally without proper safety standards.

Álvaro Farfán, captain of the regional fire department, said emergency teams continued working to retrieve the miners' bodies.

Last July, rescuers freed 18 workers trapped for 18 hours underground in an unlicensed gold mine after a mechanical failure.

Sutatausa saw one of the deadliest recent incidents in 2023, when 21 people perished in a blast that ripped through tunnels in a complex of coal mines there. Investigators at the time blamed a methane gas buildup.