UPDATED: Gov’t declares April 6 as a mourning day
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UPDATED: 18:12
The government of Georgia has declared April 6 as a mourning day after an accident in a mine in west Georgia claiming six lives and injuring three.
Flags on state buildings will fly at half-staff tomorrow.
The deceased mine workers are: Pavle Gamezardashvili, 26, Giorgi Bochorishvili, 28, Mirza Kurtsikidze, 46, Besik Gurgenidze, 50, Elguja Bochorishvili, 52 and Gogi Rapava, 59.
One of the three mine workers injured in today’s accident has told Georgian Economy Minister Dimitri Kumsishvili that he has never witnessed anything of the sort before - he said that the reason behind the accident early this morning was a coal mine bump.
I have been working as a miner for 10 years and I have never witnessed anything of the sort. What happened was a mine bump, which gives no previous signs and happens unexpectedly. Due to the coal bump a huge wave of air is created unexpectedly,” said mine worker Irakli Kirkitadze.
The air wave dragged me 15-17 meters,” he said.
The head of Saknakhrishi, the company conducting mining works in the western Tkibuli region, also stated that the reason behind the tragedy could have been a bump, which "similar to earthquake is impossible to forecast.”
The health condition of the three injured workers is stable as doctors say and their lives are not at risk.
Economy minister arrived in the hospital to see injured mine workers. Photo by the Economy Ministry press office.
EARLIER: 11:57
Six miners died and three have been injured as the ceiling collapsed at the Mindeli coal mine in the town of Tkibuli in the west of Georgia last night.
Two of those injured have been sent to the hospital in the nearby town of Kutaisi, while the other was sent to a hospital in Tkibuli.
President Giorgi Margvelashvili offered his deep condolences to the families of those who died in last night’s accident.
The tragedy that has happened in Tkibuli reveals how the existing situation in terms of the labour safety is dramatically serious and unacceptable”, President Margvelashvili said.
He said it is important that the state and society use all their efforts to control and ensure the execution of labour safety rules.
Georgian Parliamentary Speaker Irakli Kobakhidze also expressed his sadness over the tragic accident at the Mindlei coal mine.
He said this is a tragedy not only for particular families, but the entire country.
Everything should be done to protect safety and labour rights, so that our citizens do not have to risk their own health and life at their workplaces”, Kobakhidze said.
According to the Interior Ministry, an investigation of the case is underway under Article #240 the criminal code on the alleged violation of safety standards. The article provides for a prison sentence of up to five years for those convicted.
A 14-member crew of the Emergency Management Service from Tbilisi immediately arrived to the site of the accident.
The representatives of the cabinet of ministers have also left to Tkibuli.
Offering his condolences to the families of the deceased, Prime Minister Giorgi Kvirikashvili says everything is being done to ensure the rapid recovery of those who have injured.
A miner died last night during underground works in Shukruti mine in the village of Chiatura - a city in the western Georgian region of Imereti.
Monitoring will be conducted in two directions: whether or not the mines work safely with no technical errors, and whether or not the workers’ rights are protected.
Four miners have been killed after a rope broke and a coal lift with four men inside fell from a height of 350 metres in the Mindeli coal mine in the town of Tkibuli in the west of Georgia.
Business Ombudsman mediates 7hrs of talks
More than five hundred miners in western Georgia’s Tkibuli region ended a 15-day strike after Georgia’s Prime Minister sent a business ombudsman to the scene to settle the ongoing pay dispute.
Georgian national flags are flying at half-mast today at all government buildings across the country. The government of Georgia declared April 6 as a mourning day after an accident in a mine in west Georgia claiming six lives and injuring three.
The President of Armenia Serzh Sargsyan has offered his deep condolences to President Giorgi Margvelashvili and the Georgian population over the tragic accident at the Mindeli coal mine in western Georgia that has claimed the lives of six and injured three.
Two miners have died at an open extraction coal quarry in Tkibuli town this morning. The bodies are already being examined to identify the circumstances of death.
The Georgian President Giorgi Margvelashvili posthumously awarded 27-year-old Georgian miner Sandro Butskhrikidze, who used to spend all his income on charity.
Prime Minister of Georgia Mamuka Bakhtadze has announced the closure of Mindeli coal mine where four died and six injured as a result of a methane explosion earlier this morning. The mine will be closed until the investigation is over. The employees of the mine will be given their monthly salary during the time the mine will be closed.
The Georgian Industrial Group (GIG), the largest industrial holding in Georgia owning Saknakhshiri coal mining company, is ready to gift the company to the state in the wake of today’s fatal incident in the Tkibuli Mindeli Mine, which claimed the lives of four miners and left six others with severe injuries.
Georgian Prime Minister Mamuka Bakhtadze has responded to the offer of the Georgian Industrial Group (GIG) regarding Tkibuli mines in western Georgia, as the holding is ready to gift the company operating the mines to the state.
The Georgian Health and Labour Ministry has inspected 84 companies since August this year and revealed safety-related and other types of violations in 81 of them.
A violation of safety standards has been named as a possible reason behind the death of two workers in central Tbilisi late yesterday by the employees of the Georgian Health Ministry Work Inspection Department.
Six activists who were detained yesterday at a rally demanding the protection of workers’ rights following the death of two workers on Sunday have been released.The incident took place late yesterday when the protestors blocked the street and police were trying to push them to the sidewalks.
The director of the Khimini Service 2 construction company has been detained earlier today for the violation of safety rules, which claimed the lives of two workers on Chavchavadze Avenue in Central Tbilisi on March 31, 2019.
'The safety of workers in Georgia’s mines is at serious risk,’ reads the beginning of the first paragraph of the Human Rights Watch research ‘No Year without Deaths’: A Decade of Deregulation Puts Georgian Miners at Risk.’ The 60-page research that has been published today, says that the risk is caused by ‘insufficient government regulation and resulting mining practices that prioritize production quotas and put workers’ safety in jeopardy.’