Update - 34 Miners Trapped Alive İn Bosnia Coal Mine

Rescuers were working to reach 34 miners still trapped in a coal mine in Bosnia, part of which collapsed after a 3.5 magnitude earthquake hit the region Thursday night.

Mehmed Oruc, a union leader at the Zenica coal mine, said rescue teams were about reach the miners who were working more than 500 meters underground when the collapse occurred.

"But they have enough air and are alive" Oruc said.

Zenica is a town nearly 53 kms northwest of Sarajevo.

Twenty-two of the 56 workers who were inside the mine during the earthquake were able to escape, leaving 34 trapped.

Family members of the miners gathered at the entrance of the mine awaiting news.

"We believe they lie, perhaps the whole second shift of miners are trapped deep inside the mine, and all what director of the mine, say that they are working on the excavation," Alisa Alic, wife of one of the trapped miners, told the Anadolu Agency.

The Zenica coal mine was the site of one of the greatest mining tragedies in the Bosnian history when 39 miners were killed in a gas explosion in 1982.

www.aa.com.tr/en - Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina