Pike River: Bodies spotted 11 years after New Zealand mine disaster

New Zealand: Human remains have been found deep inside a New Zealand coal mine, more than ten years after a series of explosions killed 29 men in there.

Two sets of remains were found there. Cameras have also picked up what may be a third body in a tunnel, according to the police. But the police regretted that the place was hard to reach and that there was no chance of recovering the remains.

The Pike River mining disaster occurred in November 2010 when two blasts ripped through the mine. Only two of the 31 miners on shift were able to escape the disaster unharmed.

None of the miners’ bodies have ever been recovered. In 2012, a Royal Commission found that the miners and contractors had been exposed to “unacceptable risk” in the South Island mine. It said there were “numerous warnings of a potential catastrophe at Pike River” but there have been no prosecutions since.