Polish president offers sympathy for copper mine victims

Speaking to reporters from Sweden, where he is on an official three-day visit, President Andrzej Duda on Wednesday expressed his condolences to the families of miners who died after an earth tremor caused rockfalls deep underneath the surface at Rudna copper mine in southwestern Poland. The President expressed the hope that the miners who are still in the mine will be saved “I wanted to express my sympathy to the families, I wanted to provide for care [from] the state to the families of the miners who tragically passed away in the coal mine,” said the president. The tremor hit the Rudna copper mine in the early morning hours of Tuesday, mine owner KGHM said, causing extensive damage and killing three miners. Access to other miners who were trapped was blocked by rocks, the company said. “Unfortunately at this moment we have three casualties and still five people underground whom we are trying to reach," director of the mine, Paweł Markowski, told a news conference. KGHM said the Rudna mine, the largest copper mine in Europe and in operation since 1974, has 11 shafts reaching as deep as 1,244 meters below the surface.