Two workers were killed due to an ‍outburst of methane and rock masses at the ‍Pniowek coal mine in southern Poland, owner JSW said on Monday evening.

Axar.az informs, citing Reuters, the company said that after 5 pm (1600 GMT) on Monday, a large ⁠amount of methane was released at the Pniowek mine, where a high-performance road header was operating with ten workers underground.

Eight managed to evacuate on their own, while contact with two others was lost, JSW said. After a ‍seven-hour rescue operation, teams located the missing miners who were pronounced dead ‍at ‍the scene by ⁠a doctor, the ‌company said.

On Tuesday morning, ⁠Poland’s Prime ‍Minister Donald Tusk offered condolences to the victims’ families ⁠on X, while President Karol Nawrocki said he received the ‌news of the miners’ deaths “with great sorrow.”