Polish rescue workers on Sunday found the bodies of two miners after an earthquake hit a coal mine in southern Poland.
A woman crying in front of the Zofiowka coal mine in Jastrzebie-Zdroj in southern Poland, on Saturday, May 5, 2018, after miners were reported missing following a powerful tremor at the mine. Two miners have been found hurt but conscious and rescuers continue to search for five missing miners. (AP Photo/Rafal Klimkiewicz)
Three other miners remain missing some 900 meters (2,950 feet) below ground since the quake hit Saturday morning in the mine, located in the town of Jastrzebie-Zdroj, close to Poland's border with the Czech Republic.
The head of the Jastrzebie Coal Company, Daniel Ozon, said a doctor confirmed the two fatalities and identification of the victims was underway.
An ambulance arriving after a tremor at the Zofiowka coal mine in Jastrzebie-Zdroj in southern Poland, on Saturday, May 5, 2018. Seven miners went missing after the strongest ever tremor at the mine. (AP Photo/Rafal Klimkiewicz) Poland Out
The first victim, initially identified by Ozon as a 38-year-old man, had been trapped under some metal. Ozon said the identification still needed to be confirmed by DNA tests. The second miner was found a few hours later, trapped in the rubble, he added.
More than 200 workers were involved in the rescue operation, working through twisted machinery and metal parts to get to the area where they expect to find the missing men. Ozon said emergency workers were pumping air into the affected area to lower the level of methane gas before they can safely move ahead.
Families waiting for a word about miners who have gone missing after a tremor at the Zofiowka coal mine in Jastrzebie-Zdroj in southern Poland, on Saturday, May 5, 2018. Seven miners went missing after the strongest ever tremor at the mine. (AP Photo/Rafal Klimkiewicz) Poland Out
A minor quake Sunday afternoon briefly delayed rescue efforts as it released more methane into the search area, Ozon said.
After the quake hit, four miners were rescued quickly but seven others went missing. Two of the missing were later found alive and have been hospitalized.
Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki and President Andrzej Duda traveled to the town, visiting the hospitalized miners and meeting with their families and some of the rescuers. Duda extended his condolences to the victims' families.
Authorities have launched an investigation into the accident. It was not clear if coal extraction would resume Monday.
Poland's State Mining Authority said the temblor had a magnitude of 3.4, while the European Mediterranean Seismological Centre pegged it at 4.3. TVN24 said the quake was also felt on the surface and shook some houses.
Coal mining is a major industry in Poland. Coal remains the main source of energy and heating in the country but Poland is taking some steps to shift toward renewable, cleaner sources of energy. The Main Statistical Office said some 65.8 million metric tons (58.7 million tonnes) of coal were extracted last year in Poland, some 4.8 million tons less than in 2016.
Still many of Poland's mines are dangerous, with methane gas that has led to a number of deadly explosions and cave-ins. So far this year, six miners including Sunday's casualties have been killed at different mines, according to the State Mining Authority.
In 2016, eight miners were killed in a cave-in at the Rudna mine in Polkowice and methane explosions killed five miners at the Myslowice-Wesola mine in 2014.
A Virginia judge has signed off on a prosecutor's request to withdraw charges against five more people in connection with the 2023 death of Irvo Otieno, a young man who was pinned to the floor for about 11 minutes while being admitted to a state psychiatric hospital.
Judge Joseph Teefy of Dinwiddie Circuit Court on Sunday approved the prosecutor's motion to nolle prosequi — or effectively drop for now — the case against five sheriff's deputies, according to court records. The prosecutor could still seek to renew the charges, attorneys involved with the matter said.
The move means prosecutions are now actively pending for just three of the 10 Henrico County deputies and Central State Hospital workers initially charged with second-degree murder in Otieno's death, which was captured on video that sparked outrage and calls for mental health and law enforcement reforms.
Otieno, a 28-year-old Black man, had been taken into custody in suburban Richmond amid a mental health crisis. He was initially transported to a private hospital but later jailed after law enforcement officials said he became combative. Later, he was transferred to the state mental health hospital south of Richmond, where he died in March 2023 of what a medical examiner found was “positional and mechanical asphyxia with restraints."
Hospital video captured a scrum of deputies and hospital workers restraining Otieno while he was in handcuffs and leg shackles.
Otieno's mother and her attorneys, who spoke at a news conference Monday, said they disagreed strongly with the prosecutor's action. But they also said the prosecutor had assured them the decision had been made for strategic reasons and that she planned to renew pursuit of the charges.
Caroline Ouko, Otieno’s mother, called the move a “radical, reckless decision with great ramifications."
“We demand justice and nothing less,” she said, renewing her long-running call for the U.S. Department of Justice to get involved in the case.
The prosecutor, Dinwiddie County Commonwealth's Attorney Amanda Mann, did not respond to questions from The Associated Press. She said in a news release that her motions to nolle prosequi the charges speak for themselves and she would have no further comment.
In those motions, Mann wrote that her predecessor, an interim commonwealth's attorney, had scheduled the order of the defendants' trials. The timing of the trials is strategically important, Mann wrote in each individual's motion, adding that she did not "find the order to be sound and competent prosecutorial decision making.”
Russ Stone, a defense attorney for one of the five deputies, Dwayne Bramble, said Mann could elect to pursue the charges again. But he said such a development would be “extremely rare."
“It's been our position all along that it was prosecutorial overreach" by the first commonwealth's attorney on the case, who “charged innocent people without an adequate basis," Stone said.
"And we appreciate the fact that the current commonwealth's attorney has corrected that,” he said.
Defense attorneys for the other individuals — Jermaine Branch, Randy Boyer, Bradley Disse and Tabitha Levere — did not respond to phone messages seeking comment.
The prosecutor who initially handled the case — and has since left the job — dropped criminal charges against two hospital employees last June.
The two deputies and one hospital worker with active cases have jury trials scheduled for October and December, according to online court records.
In a separate civil case, Otieno's family reached an $8.5 million settlement with the state, county and sheriff's department whose deputies helped restrain him.
Otieno's family, its legal team and other advocates have raised concerns that Otieno’s race played a role in the way he was treated. The group of individuals who have faced charges in connection with his death was multiracial, according to court records.
Nationally known civil rights attorney Ben Crump, who is part of the family's legal team, has drawn comparisons between Otieno's death and the killing of George Floyd, whose family he also represented.
At Monday's news conference, he said the case against the individuals who had been charged was not complicated, given that their interactions with Otieno were captured on camera. They should be “zealously” prosecuted, he said.
"The troubling issue for many of us in the Black community is ... we are quick to be prosecuted when we are accused of a crime. However, when we're the victims of crime by the authorities, there seems to be delay, delay, delay," he said.
FILE - Caroline Ouko, mother of Irvo Otieno, holds a portrait of her son at the Dinwiddie Courthouse in Dinwiddie, Va., March 16, 2023. On Sunday, May 5, 2024, a Virginia judge signed off on a prosecutor's request to withdraw charges against five more people in connection with the 2023 death of Otieno, a young man who was pinned to the floor for about 11 minutes while being admitted to a state psychiatric hospital. (Daniel Sangjib Min/Richmond Times-Dispatch via AP, File)
FILE - Caroline Ouko, mother of Irvo Otieno, holds a portrait of her son with attorney Ben Crump, left; her older son, Leon Ochieng; and attorney Mark Krudys, at the Dinwiddie Courthouse in Dinwiddie, Va., March 16, 2023. On Sunday, May 5, 2024, a Virginia judge signed off on a prosecutor's request to withdraw charges against five more people in connection with the 2023 death of Otieno, a young man who was pinned to the floor for about 11 minutes while being admitted to a state psychiatric hospital. (Daniel Sangjib Min/Richmond Times-Dispatch via AP, File)
