Three Houses Collapsed in Pernik Following Illegal Mining Activities

Three houses fell through the illegal coal mining sites in the Pernik neighborhood Rudnichar Wednesday.

A state of emergency has been issued after the incident.

One of the buildings has been declared unsuitable for living. All residing families have been evacuated and two of them have been accommodated into municipal residences.

Meanwhile, Pernik’s Mayor Engineer Ivan Ivanov stated that the accident had been caused by a landslide.

‘’The biggest problem is that illegal mining is not criminalized,’’ said Mayor Ivan Ivanov in an interview for Darik radio. ‘’ We are able to arrest the culprits but the prosecutor’s office refuses to start a lawsuit.’’

A rescue team has been called immediately upon the accident. After the initial inspection was completed, a 15-meter long and 10-15 meter deep gallery has been discovered. It had little access to oxygen. The entrances to the illegal mining sites are part of the territory of Elit Group, as reported by News 7.

As it turned out, burying of the holes cause by the mining activities would be extremely costly – between BGN 3,000 and 5,000 on a monthly basis.

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