Third body retrieved from Meghalaya coal mine

No one has come forward to identify the two bodies recovered so far, local authorities said.

Rescue workers on Friday afternoon retrieved a third body from a rat hole mine in Meghalaya’s East Jaintia Hills district where at least five miners are said to be trapped since May 30. The first body was fished out by a team of Navy personnel on June 16 and the second on June 24. The trapped miners were among a dozen workers who were operating illegally in a 500 ft deep rat-hole coal mine at Krem Ule in the district’s Umpleng area. The district’s Deputy Commissioner Ethelbert Kharmalki said an inquest was conducted by an executive magistrate at the spot and the body was later transported to the civil hospital in district headquarters Khliehriat for post-mortem.