Two men died perished Saturday during illegal coal mining near the town of Bobovdol in Southwest Bulgaria.

The two men are aged 23 and 37, and are of Roma origin. They were mining for coal in an illegally created mining gallery some 40 m underground together with a third man.

The two suffocated, and the third man tried to help them but failed and ran to alert the police.
The illegal mining gallery, which is near the village of Golyama Fucha, had a hand-made ventilation system consisting of parts of an old washing machine and plastic bags, that got energy from the accumulator of an old Russian car parked on the surface.

Upon the arrival of the rescue teams, the oxygen in the gallery was about 14-16%, and specialists believe that at the time the two suffocated, it was below 10%.

The third man who survived explained to the police that at one point the car accumulator stopped functioning and there was no fresh air supply in the gallery.

Local residents have told the Bulgarian National Radio that numerous groups of men mine for coal illegally in the region to make a living. The men usually fill the coal in 50 kg plastic sacks and sell it for BGN 6-8 per sack.

They claim, however, that most of these men dig holes of 6-8 meters but that the mining gallery where Saturday's accident happened was the only one of its kind.