Explosion at Coking Coal Mine in Poland Kills at Least 5 People

The death toll from methane explosions at Pniowek mine in southern Poland climbed to five after rescue workers recovered a body of another miner trapped in a blast.

The accident could have affected as many as 42 people, who were working in the area where it took place shortly after midnight on Wednesday. The mine is operated by Europe’s largest coking coal producer JSW SA.

More than 20 people are being treated in hospitals. There’s still no contact with seven rescuers, who were part of the first group that went down the 1,000-meter-deep shaft to help miners after the first blast occurred. The second explosion that took place around 3 a.m. trapped them underground.

The accident at one of its main mines is likely to affect output at JSW SA, based in the southern Polish city of Jastrzebie Zdroj. It’s clearly negative for the company, which has planned to produce 14.5 million tons of coal this year, according to MBank SA’s equity analyst Antoni Kania.

JSW shares dropped 1.1% at 2:35 p.m. on Wednesday, underperforming the Warsaw’s main WIG20 index, which was unchanged.

Photograph: Flags fly from a mine elevator tower at the KWK Pniowek coal mine in Poland. Photo credit: Sean Gallup/Getty Images