ALMATY: At least two people have been killed and more are missing after a blaze broke out in a coal mine in Kazakhstan, authorities in the Central Asian country announced Friday.
The ArcelorMittal group — the world’s second largest steel producer which operates the facility — has previously been blamed for violating environmental and safety norms in Kazakhstan.
The Luxembourg-based company operates around a dozen mines in the resource-rich ex-Soviet country.
“Rescuers have recovered two bodies. The search for three people is continuing,” authorities in the Karaganda region where the accident took place announced.
ArcelorMittal confirmed the fatalities in a statement cited by new agencies.
The fire broke out Thursday morning at a conveyor-belt some 170 metres (560 feet) underground in a mine in Shakhtinsk in central Kazakhstan, the government said.
Out of 227 workers present, 220 have been evacuated, and several have been hospitalised, regional officials said.
Authorities have announced they are opening a criminal investigation over the fire.
The incident this week comes after an ArcelorMittal employee died at one of the company’s factories in December, and people died at a Shakhtinsk mine in November.
President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev at the time denounced the “systemic character” of accidents involving the company that he said left more than 100 people dead since 2006.
The ArcelorMittal group — the world’s second largest steel producer which operates the facility — has previously been blamed for violating environmental and safety norms in Kazakhstan.
The Luxembourg-based company operates around a dozen mines in the resource-rich ex-Soviet country.
“Rescuers have recovered two bodies. The search for three people is continuing,” authorities in the Karaganda region where the accident took place announced.
ArcelorMittal confirmed the fatalities in a statement cited by new agencies.
The fire broke out Thursday morning at a conveyor-belt some 170 metres (560 feet) underground in a mine in Shakhtinsk in central Kazakhstan, the government said.
Out of 227 workers present, 220 have been evacuated, and several have been hospitalised, regional officials said.
Authorities have announced they are opening a criminal investigation over the fire.
The incident this week comes after an ArcelorMittal employee died at one of the company’s factories in December, and people died at a Shakhtinsk mine in November.
President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev at the time denounced the “systemic character” of accidents involving the company that he said left more than 100 people dead since 2006.