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. (Sept. 5)
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Zenica, Bosnia – Herzegovina – 5 Sept 2014
1. Various of weeping family members of trapped miners being escorted away
2. Miner being helped out and people greeting him
3. Rescued miner being escorted from Raspotocje Mine by rescue workers
4. Mid of rescued miner inside ambulance
5. Miner being brought out on a stretcher
6. Mid of people consoling man crying
7. Various of people crying being escorted away
8. Wide pan of ambulance leaving
9. SOUNDBITE (Bosnian) Amir Arnaut, rescue worker (see transcript below)
10. Miner leaving mine
11. Injured miner Muris Tutnjic greets his friends outside
12. SOUNDBITE (Bosnian) Muris Tutnjic, injured miner:(see transcript below)
13. Various of mine and rescued miners being brought out
VOICE-OVER SCRIPT:
RAW EMOTIONS OUTSIDE A MINE IN BOSNIA.
GRIEF FOR COAL MINERS TRAPPED UNDERGROUND… BELIEVED TO BE DEAD… MIXED WITH CRIES OF JOY FOR THOSE RESCUED.
RESCUE WORKERS MANAGED TO REACH 29 MEN AFTER TWO MINE TUNNELS COLLAPSED ON THURSDAY AFTER A GAS EXPLOSION.
SOME OF THE SURVIVORS WERE SERIOUSLY INJURED.
A MINING OFFICIAL SAYS THE BLAST WAS TRIGGERED BY A SMALL EARTHQUAKE.
ON FRIDAY… LOVED ONES WATCHED THE MEN EMERGE ONE-BY-ONE… AFTER SPENDING THE NIGHT TRAPPED BELOW GROUND.
OTHERS WAITED FOR GOOD NEWS THAT NEVER CAME.
OFFICIALS SAY FIVE MEN ARE BURIED IN A SEPARATE AREA OF THE MINE TOO FAR TO REACH… SOME 16 – HUNDRED FEET BELOW GROUND.
OFFICIALS CALLED OFF RESCUE EFFORTS ON FRIDAY… BELIEVING THE MEN STILL BELOW GROUND ARE DEAD.
SOUNDBITE (Bosnian) Amir Arnaut, rescue worker:
“We could not reach that group of people. We just reached that first group of some 30 of them, trapped miners. We used the utmost force that we could to reach them.”
OVER TWENTY MINERS MANAGED TO ESCAPE ON THEIR OWN THURSDAY AND RETURNED TO THE SITE TO SHOW SUPPORT.
SOUNDBITE (Bosnian) Muris Tutnjic, injured miner:
“It just wiped us out. It wiped me out too. I was alone at my work place, I was working. Thank God, I managed to pull myself out”
THIS IS THE THIRD INCIDENT AT THE COAL MINE THIS YEAR… THE MOST RECENT LESS THAN FOUR WEEKS AGO.
IT’S ALSO THE SITE OF ONE THE GREATEST MINING DISASTERS IN BOSNIA… THAT KILLED 39 MINERS IN 19-82.
PADMANANDA RAMA, THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
