Sunday 25th anniversary of worst Czech mining disaster of modern age

Sunday is the 25th anniversary of the worst mining disaster in modern Czech history, when 30 miners met their deaths in the Důl Barbora mine in Karviná in the Moravian Silesian Region. An explosion occurred at 650 metres below ground on 18 November 1990, killing two thirds of the 41 men working there. A commission later established the cause as a methane explosion started by a spark. The most tragic mining disaster ever in the Czech lands, which left 319 dead, occurred in Příbram in 1892.

Author: Ian Willoughby