Five dead in Meghalaya coal mine mishap

Five miners were crushed to death when the cables of a crane being used to lower them into a coal pit snapped midway hurling them down the pit at Briwar, 80 km from Shillong, in Meghalaya’s East Jaintia Hills district, officials said on Saturday.

“Five migrant coal miners from Assam died at Briwar when cables of a crane snapped midway in the coal pit,” M K Dkhar, the district police chief of East Jaintia Hills, said.

Dkhar said the bodies of the victims were retrieved from the 200 feet deep coal pit and have been sent for post mortem. ‘We have registered a case and investigation has begun,’ he said.