PRAGUE, Dec. 23 (Xinhua) -- Rescuers Sunday pulled out three remains of miners who died in Thursday's underground methane explosion in the CSM coal mine in Moravia-Silesia, said spokesman for the OKD company Ivo Celechovsky.
An exploration on Sunday showed there is no more fire underground, but there are still extremely high concentrations of methane and oxygen, which may lead to another explosion, said Celechovsky, adding the rescuers will seal off the dangerous locality by means of four barriers they have built. The blocked area is about 500 x 500 meters.
In the explosion and subsequent fire on Thursday, 13 miners, 12 Poles and one Czech, died. Only one body of the victims was taken to the ground surface after the accident on Thursday, and another three on Sunday, when the underground fire subsided.
The other miners' bodies are in the still unaccessible part of the mine. Celechovsky said the three bodies were pulled out on Sunday morning, and they will be taken to the Institute of Forensic Medicine for identification.
Three miners were injured in the accident on Thursday, they are all poles and stay in Ostrava hospital at present. Two of them were seriously injured and the other one is in life danger.
The CSM mine has been closed after Thursday's explosion, and its 800 employees remain at home so far.
The CSM mine is part of the Czech state-owned OKD company. The accident is the second most fatal one in Bohemia and Moravia region in the country since 1990.
