Three persons, including one woman, were reportedly killed inside an abandoned open-cast mine of the Bharat Coking Coal Ltd (BCCL) in a village in West Burdwan's Kulti when a chunk of the coal roof fell on them while they were stealing coal on Tuesday morning. A Kulti police officer said: "We heard about an incident at the abandoned mine in Kulti. The ED recently summoned for questioning three alleged coal smugglers from the Asansol-Durgapur coal belt. On Tuesday, after villagers had recovered three bodies, the BCCL also launched rescue work, local sources said, but no more bodies were recovered till evening. However, local sources alleged that villagers in hundreds steal coal from abandoned mines and sell it to brickfields and private iron and steel factories.

Source: The Telegraph January 14, 2026 02:46 UTC