Six workers in Meghalaya’s East Jaintia Hills district were killed in a crane accident while working at an abandoned coal mine site on Thursday, 21 January.
E Kharmalki, deputy commissioner of East Jaintia Hills district, told EastMojo the accident happened at an abandoned coal mine in Sarkari near Rymbai village.
According to district officials, all the workers who lost their lives in the accident were from Barak Valley in Assam. The accident happened when the crane box, used to go down a deep pit, snapped and broke apart, taking the migrant workers down an approximately 100-feet deep mine.
"We are still trying to ascertain what these workers were doing at an abandoned coal mine. They were perhaps carrying out some earth excavation work there. There is no coal in the pit or the surface there," the deputy commissioner said.