3 more bodies recovered from flooded coal mine in India's Assam

NEW DELHI, Jan. 11 (Xinhua) -- Rescuers in India's northeastern state of Assam Saturday retrieved the bodies of three more trapped workers from inside a coal mine as the operation to trace the missing workers has entered the sixth straight day, officials said.

The bodies were recovered from the rat-hole coal mine in Umrangso of Dima Hasao district, about 241 km southeast of Dispur, the capital city of Assam.

"Today three bodies were retrieved from the coal mine due to the efforts of rescuers, who have been using pumps to dewater the inundated rat-hole mine," a police official said.

Rat-hole mining entails digging into the side of hills and then burrowing horizontal narrow tunnels to reach a coal deposit.

So far, four bodies have been recovered and the search for the remaining five is underway. The first body was retrieved from the mine on Wednesday.

On Monday, at least nine workers were trapped inside the coal mine after a sudden gush of water flooded the quarry.

Experts say the coal mining industry is poorly regulated in India and miners with little protection are often faced with life-threatening situations.