Six workers died in a mishap that took place inside an abandoned coal mine pit in East Jaintia Hills district in Meghalaya when they were reportedly trying to dig a tunnel on Thursday.
Officials said six bodies were retrieved on Friday morning and five of them identified. Six hailed from neighbouring Assam.
The incident took place in Deinsala village in Rymbai area when the machine they were using to dig the tunnel collapsed and all slipped into deep water in the abandoned coal mine. They were digging the tunnel to mine coal, sources said.
The district administration officials said efforts were on to trace the owner of the pit and to understand how the mishap took place.
The mishap was almost similar to the one that took place in December 2018 when 15 miners were buried alive in an illegal coal mine. Bodies of nine miners could not be retrieved despite efforts for weeks.
Activists in Meghalaya, who have been campaigning against mining said deaths of the six persons again proved that illegal coal mining was still underway even as the state government denied the same.