Two seriously injured Polish miners died in hospital today, bringing the death toll from last week's methane explosion in a coal mine in the south of the country to 17, dpa reported. Another 35 people remained hospitalized and two were in serious condition, reported TVN 24. The explosion happened last Friday 1,050 metres below ground at a coal mine in Ruda Slaska, southern Poland. A special commission has been set up by the State Mining Authority to determine the cause of the fire. Officials began interviewing witnesses Monday and conducted post-mortems. Police said Wednesday that an unknown man had attacked the spokeswoman for the State Mining Authority and stole her laptop, TVN 24 reported. The laptop contained no classified information that related to the investigation, police said. Prosecutors would also investigate allegations about unlawful practices at the KWK Wujek Slask coal mine, in Poland's coal-rich Silesia region, said a spokesman for the prosecutors' office in Katowice. Miners speaking anonymously have said the mine broke safety regulations and that mining officials knew of upcoming inspections and allowed passageways to air out from methane.
