'Killer mine' claims 21 more lives after repeat of gas blast

An explosion probably caused by a methane gas build-up ripped through an underground coal mine in Colombia during a shift change, killing 21 workers.

A similar fatal blast occurred at the same mine four years ago.

Five of the victims died at the mine's entrance and by afternoon two bodies had been removed from the mine with another 14 left to recover, said the provincial Colombian Red Cross director, Johel Enrique Rodriguez.

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He said rescuers had seen the rest of the bodies, which he said were covered in burns and scattered throughout the kilometre-long tunnel that extended horizontally beneath a verdant mountain.

Gabriel Tamayo, manager of the La Preciosa mine in Sardinata, 255 miles north east of the capital, Bogota, would not speculate on the cause. But Colombian Red Cross rescue chief Carlos Ivan Marquez said preliminary indications pointed to a methane gas build-up.

A similar build-up was believed to have caused of an explosion at the mine in 2007 that killed 32 miners.

Such a blast "is like a kind of cannon shot and creates a flame within the mine and obviously has tragic consequences", said provincial governor William Villamizar.

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Officials said the explosion happened during a shift change.

"I refuse to work here any longer," miner Luis Chacon told television crews.

He called La Preciosa "a killer mine".

The Ministry of Mining and Energy said the mine would be shut down, at least temporarily.

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