Eleven dead and four wounded left a mining accident in Colombia

Eleven dead and four wounded left an accidental explosion at a Colombian coal mine in Cucunubá, a town near the capital of the South American nation, Bogotá, according to the fire department.

The victims were workers working in the midst of the health emergency for the new coronavirus.

Although the majority of Colombians are quarantined by order of the government, lMining activity was excluded from the containment measures.

The governor of the Cundinamarca department, Nicolás García, shared the balance of the event through his account on the Twitter social network.

“An accident that occurred this afternoon in the municipality of Cucunubá, where the explosion inside some mines was registered, leaves us with a tragic balance of eleven people dead and four wounded. From the Interior we will provide their families with all the support they require, “said the governor.

“Eleven fatal victims have been rescued and we have four injured,” said Captain Álvaro Farfán, chief of the fire department of the Cundinamarca department, in whose jurisdiction Cucunubá is located.

Speaking to the local television channel Snail, Farfán said that the accident occurred in a legally operating coal mineHe did not elaborate on the type of explosion, however.

On Friday, six other miners died in a similar event. occurred at a coal deposit in the municipality of San Cayetano, in northeast Colombia.

After the new tragedy, the National Mining Agency (state) announced the suspension “of underground coal mining activity”In Cucunubá, as published on the social network Twitter.

The agency confirmed the report of eleven dead and four wounded.

In total, Colombia has 32 deaths from coronaviruses and reached 1,406 and confirmed cases.

Doctors, nurses and emergency personnel, loaded into dozens of ambulances with sirens on, took to several streets of the Colombian capital on Wednesday in solidarity with their colleagues and protesting delays in the payment of their wages, amid the coronavirus pandemic.

Medical workers, escorted by police patrols and motorcycles, stopped in front of a clinic in northern Bogotá and applauded their colleagues who are attending the health emergency.

The President of Colombia, Iván Duque, decreed a mandatory preventive isolation of 19 days until April 13, seeking to contain the virus.