Dibrugarh, Nov. 7: A second mishap at Lachit coal mine at Ledo in Assam’s Tinsukia district today left a dozen workers injured even as inquiries were on into the mishap on Tuesday that claimed its second victim this morning.

Today’s “hot air burst” at 10.15am was said to be of a higher intensity, but the harm was restricted as there were fewer workers around.

“The miners were operating a pump to remove water from the mine when there was an explosion of methane gas. Fortunately, not many of them were around and the miners were rescued within a very short period,” Northeastern Coal Fields (NECF) manager (public relations) Ranjit Dutta said.

Five of the 12 injured — Sidheswar Kalita, B. Sanyasi, Gobind Newar, B. Moslaya and Juman Prasad Tura — were admitted to the company hospital in Margherita. Doctors said they were out of danger.

Sources in the company said today’s mishap had “totally exposed the weak safety and security measures which the company adopts”.

The NECF officials who were trying to project Tuesday’s incident as a mere accident were left red-faced today.

Two separate teams from the company and the department of mines are independently probing Tuesday’s mishap.

“What more evidence do the senior officials of the company need? Today’s incident happened right in front of them. We fail to understand why is the company not taking any action against the guilty officers. We will not allow (the company) to use our workers as guinea pigs,” said Ranjan Choudhury, the chief advisor of the Intuc-affiliated Assam Coal Mines Mazdoor Union.

The union will soon launch an agitation if the company fails to punish the guilty officials, he added.

The Citu-affiliated Rashtriya Coal Mazdoor Union, which had staged a dharna in front of the NECF office in Margherita yesterday, said it would intensify its agitation.

The toll in Tuesday’s mishap rose to two today with the death of another worker, L. Pollaiya, at a private nursing home in Dibrugarh. The company today shifted two injured workers, M. Satyanarayan and Bijoy Shankar Rajbhar, to Apollo Hospitals in Calcutta. They were accompanied by company doctors R. Patnaik and Binoy Kumar Das. Four others will be shifted on Saturday, Dutta said.