TAEBAEK, Gangwon Province (Yonhap) -- A gas explosion at a coal mine has killed two people and injured six others, police said Saturday.
The blast occurred at around 8 p.m. on Friday when nine miners were working at a site about 970 meters deep or 3,400 meters from the entrance, police officer Chang Jae-koo said.
He said the wounded are being treated for carbon monoxide poisoning at nearby hospitals in Taebaek, some 250 kilometers southeast of Seoul. Two of them were transferred to a special hospital in Seoul for treatment of burns, according to hospital officials.
Chang said police investigators questioned the ninth miner who was not injured and walked out of the mine by himself.
An investigation is under way to determine the exact cause of the accident, Chang added, but they could not access to the site as toxic gas still remains inside the pit.
Taebaek was once the largest mining city in South Korea with 44 mines, though the number has now dwindled to just two, as the country has shifted toward imported oil as an energy source, according to Kim Dae-jin, an official of Taebaek Coal Museum.