MINE COLLAPSE TAKES AWAY THREE HUMAN LIVES IN CRIULENI RAION

Moldovan Prime Minister Pavel Filip has demanded a thorough investigation into the circumstances of the tragedy that happened on Monday afternoon in a limestone mine in the village of Pascani in central Moldova, where 3 workers died of a rock cave-in.

The first to raise alarm were their wives, who contacted the mine administration and said their men had not come back home after a working day. At about 8 pm, the police and rescuers revealed a rock collapse in a mine corridor. Several hours later, the rescue team revealed under the limestone debris the bodies of two miners and the third worker, who was alive at the moment, but died afterwards in an ambulance.

At the moment, the accident site is being examined by experts from the General Inspectorate for Emergency Situations, by prosecutors and forensic experts.

The Prime Minister asked relevant state institutions to keep in touch with the miners’ families and to provide them with necessary assistance. Filip also demanded to scrutinize the tragedy circumstances and reveal the responsible, and to thoroughly examine the technical shape of, and work conditions in, all functional limestone mines in the republic.

All the three miners were the residents of the Magdacesti village (Criuleni Raion). The mine collapse happened yet at 2 pm on Monday, but the enterprise owners decided not to report the accident to the authorities. The workers’ relatives stated that the labor conditions and safety precautions were grossly neglected in the mine. For instance, miners were not equipped even with safety helmets, and safety instructions were organized for them at best once a year.

The Prosecutor General's Office has initiated a criminal litigation into the tragedy, and has detained the mine official who is in charge of the observance of safety regulations at the enterprise.