ZENICA, Bosnia-Herzegovina: One by one, rescue workers pulled 29 miners out of a trouble-plagued coal mine Friday after it had collapsed a day earlier in central Bosnia.
Officials halted rescue efforts, believing that five men who remained deep underground were dead.
Tired, their faces smeared with coal dust, the men came out of the Zenica mine one by one on Friday, after spending the night more than 500 meters (1,600 feet) below the ground.
Anxious family members cried with happiness as they embraced their loved ones. Ambulances were parked outside the mine entrance to take the miners for a medical checkup.
The union leader at the Zenica coal mine, Mehmed Oruc, said two tunnels in the mine collapsed Thursday evening following a gas explosion triggered by a minor earthquake that had hit the area near the town of Zenica.
He said 22 other miners managed to leave the pit after the tunnels collapsed, although two were injured.
Bosnian mine accident: 29 rescued, five miners buried
Bosnian mine accident: 29 rescued, five miners buried
Germany plays down threat of US invading Greenland after talks
WASHINGTON: Germany’s top diplomat on Monday played down the risk of a US attack on Greenland, after President Donald Trump’s repeated threats to seize the island from NATO ally Denmark.
Asked after meeting Secretary of State Marco Rubio about a unilateral military move by Trump, German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul said: “I have no indication that this is being seriously considered.”
“Rather, I believe there is a common interest in addressing the security issues that arise in the Arctic region, and that we should and will do so,” he told reporters.
“NATO is only now in the process of developing more concrete plans on this, and these will then be discussed jointly with our US partners.”
Wadephul’s visit comes ahead of talks this week in Washington between Rubio and the top diplomats of Denmark and Greenland, which is an autonomous territory of Denmark.
Trump in recent days has vowed that the United States will take Greenland “one way or the other” and said he can do it “the nice way or the more difficult way.”
Greenland’s government on Monday repeated that it would not accept a US takeover under “any circumstance.”
Greenland and NATO also said Monday that they were working on bolstering defense of the Arctic territory, a key concern cited by Trump.
Trump has repeatedly pointed to growing Arctic activity by Russia and China as a reason why the United States needs to take over Greenland.
But he has also spoken more broadly of his desire to expand the land mass controlled by the United States.
