Explosion followed by emission of flame and smoke in a closed incline of Lakshmimata open cast mine of Eastern Coalfields Limited near Nirsa, about 45 km from here in Jharkhand was reported today, police said.
The incident occurred around 4 am to 5 am, they said.
After getting information of the explosion, Mugma area general manager of ECL P K Singh, Nirsa MLA Arup Chatterjee, former minister and Forward Bloc state chief Aparna Sengupta, officer in-charge of Nirsa police station Ram Pravesh Kumar and circle officer Prasant Kumar Layak rushed to the spot.
The ECL GM assured that spot would be filled with sand to stop emission of fire as well as smoke.
The Nirsa MLA expressed concern over the explosion and asked the ECL GM for safety of Marba basti villagers and miners of nearby collieries where mining is on.
"I asked GM to initiate measures for extinguishing of fire for safety of villagers and traffic movement at NH-2," Sengupta said.
The ECL management had closed this mine around 10 years ago.
