Martin Muck

“It was a cross which was mined from the basic wall, and we made a turn to open the wall, which means to the wall corridor. The mining equipment was supposed to be moved there. All of us were in the corner, and we were putting there wooden supports, everything was closed above us, but it was supported about three metres above the iron level where the coal had fallen, and we were finishing putting the wooden supports there and the stop was ready. I was on one edge; my colleague was on another edge and another colleague was on a ladder in the middle where he was adding some wooden supports. And suddenly it sounded, there was a bang and slowly it started to fall. We all stayed on the edges because when something falls in the shaft, it falls in the middle, rarely on the edges. That is why everyone stayed on the edge and the colleague who was in the middle of the wall but actually on the edge stayed there and for some reason I do not understand (because he was) an experienced miner like me, jumped into the middle. As soon as the collapse ended, I started to count people because I was the foreman and I looked for them and started to ask them if they were all right. Everyone answered me but him. And it was a problem and it started. To report it to the controller, to stop all works at that point, everyone rushes to the accident scene, and everything starts to get sorted out, the mine rescue workers from Most are activated and it is underway.”