• “there was a huge explosion inside the mine that caused a fire”, Jhon Olivares.
• More than 70 rescuers kept up the search for victims, while families waited.
• Last year, 148 people died in mining accidents in Colombia.

Authorities said Friday that three bodies had been recovered from a mine in Colombia where 14 miners had been trapped deep underground since an explosion on Monday.

The first body was extracted from the coal mine early Thursday, with the other two extracted later in the day, according to Gustavo Raad, a state mining agency official.

Raad said “11 workers remain missing” at the mine in El Zulia, a municipality in the eastern Norte de Santander state.

Another miner, who was outside the mine at the time of the explosion, died on Wednesday from burns he suffered.

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More than 70 rescuers kept up the search for victims on Friday, while families waited nearby for news.

Jhon Olivares, the mine secretary for Norte de Santander department, told AFP that “there was a huge explosion inside the mine that caused a fire.”

After that, “a series of gases” emitted from the site prevented rescuers from launching their search mission for “almost 36 hours,” Olivares said.

He said that “close to 90 percent of the mine collapsed,” making rescue work difficult.

Last year, 148 people died in mining accidents in Colombia.

Along with oil, mined raw materials are one of the country’s main exports.

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