One person was killed and three were feared dead after a mishap at an underground mine at BCCL’s Basantimata colliery in Dhanbad district.

“One body has been brought out,” Tapas Kumar Lahiry, Chairman and Managing Director of Bharat Coking Coal (BCCL), told PTI. “Three others trapped inside are also feared dead. Two of them are officers.”

Lahiry said the roof of a mine at Chanch/Victoria area at Basantimata colliery caved in at about 11 a.m., during coal mining operations. The persons who were trapped were worker Hiralal, explosives carrier Sitaram Majhi and Lito Saha and Arup Chatterjee, he said.

The CMD said six persons were engaged at the site when the mishap occurred. More than 100 people have been pressed into rescue and other operations.

Dhanbad-based BCCL, a Coal India subsidiary, accounts for almost 50 per cent of the total prime coking coal requirement of the integrated steel sector.