One person died in an air burst that occurred inside an underground coal mine of the Eastern Coalfields Limited (ECL) in West Burdwan's Jamuria on Thursday morning.
Sources said 40 coal miners, including contract workers, were engaged in the morning shift to extract coal at Parasiya Colliery at Kunostoria when the accident occurred around 10am.
Initially, it had been apprehended that those trapped were dead, but later the ECL authorities said one person had died. The ECL rescue team recovered the body of Debai Munda, 59, a permanent employee, and other miners were rescued in injured condition.
ECL officials said an air explosion in a coal mine is caused by the ignition of methane gas, coal dust or a mixture of both mixed with air.
"It releases intense heat and high-pressure shockwaves that injured several miners and killed one of them. The coal roof and chunks also collapsed on some miners in the impact of the explosion," said an ECL official in Asansol.
Sources said 12 miners were injured and hospitalised.
However, trade union leaders at the mine blamed the ECL's alleged negligence for the incident.
"The ECL authorities cannot deny their responsibility. The ECL authorities did not fill up the voids with sand properly, and following that, the air explosion occurred. We demand proper compensation," said Dharmadas Mondal, general secretary of the Citu-affiliated trade union at the mine.
However, the ECL management denied the charge.
Bijay Kumar, agent of the colliery, said the ECL would probe the incident.
"As of now, we have not found any negligence behind the incident. It was an accident. Compensation will be given according to the rules," said Kumar.