Three persons were suffocated to death inside an abandoned coal mine at Kulti in Burdwan district when they were extracting coal illegally this morning.
The three, identified as Shakil, Aslam and Sraman, all in their 20s, went inside the abandoned open-cast mine at Baria in the Kulti area to mine coal illegally, police said.
The abandoned mines, under the Eastern Coalfields Limited (ECL), are often filled with poisonous gases and police suspect that the inhalation of the gas caused the death of the three.
ECL officials, when contacted, refused to say anything.
Gangs of illegal coal miners operate in the Asansol belt supplying coal to consumers which include small-time companies apart from individual households.
One can see truckloads of coal being ferried at the dead of night to consumers in Dhanbad and other places.
