Six miners have died in a northern Spanish coal mine after an apparent leak of methane gas Source: AAP
SPANISH miners have launched a 48-hour work stoppage as they recall the horror of a methane gas leak that killed six coal workers in the industry's deadliest accident in 18 years.
The gas suffocated the six workers in a mine in northwestern Spain on Monday, officials said, spreading so quickly 700 metres underground that miners had no time to put on protective masks.
Another five workers injured at the Santa Lucia mine, near the town of Pola de Gordon, were taken to hospital and are in a stable condition, officials said.
Eleven miners were reportedly working in a 200-metre long gallery when disaster struck.
The four-metre high, five-metre wide passage was accessible via a cage lift.
Methane, a colourless and odourless gas and a deadly enemy of miners for centuries, is not toxic in small quantities. But it deprives the air of oxygen and can quickly asphyxiate at high concentrations.
Jesus Gonzalez, 30, one of 116 workers there at the time of the disaster, told AFP he was working in another part of the mine when the accident occurred in section seven.
"I was about to have a sandwich when it happened and I saw everyone running out," Gonzalez said on Tuesday.
People were shouting "Let's go to section seven, the roof has collapsed," the miner said. The movement of the rock may have pushed methane through the passage, he added.
"I was taking out the stretchers to the street, they were coming out asleep without a single scratch. It was simply the methane displacing the oxygen, an overwhelming asphyxiation. One mouthful of that and that's it, like birds."
Most of the victims were in their 30s, however, including parents of young children, he added.
Major Spanish union federations, the CCOO and UGT, called a two-day halt to work in Spain's mines. About 40 mines are in operation, mostly in the north, and the aim is to lower employment from some 8,000 in 2011 to 4,500 by 2018.
"Both federations have decided to call a 48-hour strike in all mining operations in the country as a symbol of respect, condolences and mourning for our workmates," they said in a joint statement.
The unions urged the National Commission for Mining Safety to investigate urgently and to take measures to prevent further such disasters.
The company that owns the mine, Hullera Vasco Leonesa, blamed a methane gas leak and said an investigation was underway into the cause of the accident.
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