Three coal miners were injured after a detonator “misfired” during a drilling operation in KTK-8 incline underground coal mine of the State-owned Singareni Collieries Company Limited (SCCL) in Bhupalpally of Jayashankar Bhupalpally district on Thursday.
The incident occurred due to accidental detonation of an unexploded detonator in a shothole when four coal miners were engaged in drilling operation in the underground coal mine around 11.30 a.m., SCCL sources said.
Three coal miners, identified as Ramakrishna, Srinivas and Rajasekhar, were injured by flyrock in the incident.
Another coal miner suffered minor injuries in the freak accident.
The injured trio were shifted to a super-speciality hospital in Hyderabad for better medical care.
It is suspected that “laxity” in adhering to the appropriate safety procedures relating to removal of the residue of explosive materials and detection of unexploded detonators, if any, left in the shotholes at the end of each shift, led to the mishap.
