Fourteen Colombian miners rescued from collapsed mine

It took Colombian authorities about three hours to be able to dig a back access entrance and free 14 people that were trapped inside a gold mine in the Marmato municipality of the Caldas province.

According to the regional Department of Risk Management, Environment and Climate Change, La Socorro’s mine main entrance collapsed on Wednesday at around 4 p.m., leaving over a dozen workers trapped inside.

As soon as the accident took place, the local fire department together with the Mining National Agency’s Group of Mining Rescue and Civil Defense got together to agree on the safest way to rescue the miners. They also got in touch with the men to make sure no one was hurt and that they had enough room to breathe.

During those first contacts, authorities thought there were 16 people inside but the preliminary number was a misunderstanding and has been corrected.