At least nine workers are trapped inside a flooded coal mine in India’s northeastern Assam state, officials said Tuesday, as authorities summoned the army to help in the rescue operation.

The miners became trapped on Monday morning in the Umrangso area in Dima Hasao district, about 125 miles (200 kilometers) south of the state capital, Guwahati.

13 YOUNG MINERS FEARED DEAD IN INDIA’S REMOTE NORTHEAST

The workers are “feared trapped 300 feet below the ground after water gushed in from a nearby unused mine. We are mobilizing resources to rescue them,” said Kaushik Rai, a local government minister who is monitoring the rescue efforts.

Army soldiers and a national disaster management team at the site used ropes and cranes to assist the ongoing operation.

Rescuers found three helmets, some slippers and a few other items, Rai said. “The divers have been able to dive into 35 or 40 feet of water inside the mine. The water level now is estimated at 100 feet,” he said.

Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said on the social media platform X that the mine appeared to be illegal and that police had arrested one person as they investigate the case.

Workers at the site said over a dozen miners had been trapped inside the mine, which has minimum safety measures, and some managed to escape as water from a nearby unused mine began filling the mine.

In India’s east and northeast, workers extract coal in hazardous conditions in small “rat hole” mines that are narrow pits in the ground, usually meant for one person to go down, and are common in hilly areas. The coal is usually placed in boxes that are hoisted to the surface with pulleys. In some cases, miners carry coal in baskets up on wooden slats flanking the walls of the mines.

Accidents in illegal mines are frequent and the livelihoods of those who do such mining depend on the illegal sale of coal. At least 15 miners were killed after getting trapped in one such mine in Meghalaya state in 2019.

Austrian far-right Freedom Party (FPÖ) leader Herbert Kickl extended an olive branch to the conservative Austria’s People Party (ÖVP) on Tuesday, inviting them to coalition talks.

His comments come after Austrian President Alexander van der Bellen gave him the green light to attempt to form a ruling coalition. 

Though the two parties have a history of clashing heads, Kickl said during a press conference that he would officially extend the invitation once his party’s leadership approved the move in a meeting on Tuesday evening. 

The conservative ÖVP is the only viable coalition partner for the FPÖ, but Kickl urged the party to be “honest” in talks or face the threat of a snap election amidst rising support for his own political group. 

Kickl said early steps in talks would be small and that it still needs to be seen whether the coalition would be viable or not. However, he also said he does not want to lose any time and now wants to start a “massive political firefighting operation.” 

During his statement on Tuesday, Kickl pointed out that it had been 100 days exactly since parliamentary elections in September but described the three months since the results came in as “lost.” 

Coalition talks between the far right and conservatives aren’t guaranteed to succeed, but there are no longer any other realistic options in the current parliament and polls suggest that a new election soon could strengthen the Freedom Party further.

Kickl’s party secured victory in those elections, winning 28.8% of the vote and surpassing outgoing Chancellor Karl Nehammer’s conservative ÖVP, which came in second. 

Van der Bellen initially tasked Nehammer with forming a government. However, the ÖVP refused to enter a coalition with the FPÖ under Kickl – leading to a political stalemate. 

Efforts to form a governing alliance without the FPÖ failed by early January, prompting Nehammer to announce on Saturday that he would resign.