Panic grips village after illegal coal mine caves in, catches fire

Panic broke out at Harishpur village in Andal when a portion of land caved in and subsequently fire broke out in the area.

Preliminary investigation revealed that illegal mining of coal has led to the incident.

On Tuesday evening, local people heard the sound of an explosion. They went to the spot and found that a large portion of land just in the outskirts of the village had caved in.

Within a few minutes, smoke started billowing out of the place and the entire village where more than 1,000 people reside was filled with smoke. It led to panic among the people and some of them had even started evacuating their houses.

The locals started searching for a safer place. People were astonished finding flames even when it was raining heavily. But the situation came under control on Wednesday afternoon and it was the incessant rainfall that helped to douse the flame. The local people have got some relief on Wednesday afternoon but they still apprehend repetition of same incident.

Local residents alleged that illegal mining of coal led to the incident. The coal mafia engage labourers to mine from these places illegally. Methane gas starts coming out of the pits due to excessive mining.

Similar incidents had happened last year as well. The police had taken stringent measures soon after the incident and had checked illegal mining of coal in the place it had happened last year. But the mafia found another spot and started mining coal illegally.

The local people demanded a permanent solution to the problem as they are in a helpless situation since the incident took place on Tuesday evening.

The police went to the spot and assured the local people of taking all necessary steps to stop recurrence of the incident in future.