When water was pumped out of a flooded rat-hole coalmine in Meghalaya’s South Garo Hills district, where 15 miners were feared trapped, no body was found, the National Disaster Response Force said on Friday.
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But Deputy Chief Minister Bindo M. Lanong, who is in charge of mining, said the government’s efforts at finding the trapped miners would continue and it would ascertain facts before coming to any conclusion.
He told The Hindu that he also received reports that the NDRF team found no body or survivor in the mine in Rongsa Awe village in Nangalbibra.
Asked whether the government would approach any other agency, he said: “If necessary, we will.”
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Alok Kumar Singh, Commandant of the First Battalion, NDRF, said rescue teams went inside the mine after the water was drained out and looked for miners, with the help of a canine squad and a magnetic life detector, but did not find any body or survivor.
He said the rescue operations were called off after the mine was cleared. “Our team went inside the mine after the water was drained out and looked for survivors or bodies…, but they was no trace of any survivor or body of any victim… We have called off the operation after clearing the mine.”