A fire inside Barapukuria coal mine Tuesday night left two miners including a Chinese national seriously injured.
The fire originated from an electrical short circuit, Barapukuria Coal Mine Company Ltd (BCMCL) sources said.
The injured were identified as Sultan Mahmud, 28, and Hu Chong Ziang of XMC. Sultan's state is critical as almost 70 percent of his body was burnt, family sources and fellow miners said. The right part of Hu Chong's body was burnt in the fire, according to BCMCL sources.
Sources said both the injured were sent to Dhaka early Wednesday as their conditions were critical. BCMCL official said all necessary actions have been taken for their treatment.
Miners were mining in Phase-1104 around 11:45pm Tuesday and at the same time a number of Bangladeshi and Chinese workers were repairing an electric wire on the wall of Phase-1104. Suddenly the wire caught fire and burnt the two workers.
BCMCL officials told The Daily Star that a few thousand metres of electric cables are down there and the short-circuit incident was a major one.
Sources said the authorities are likely to start the fire investigation today as Bangladeshi and Chinese workforces in the mine are blaming each other for the incident.