“Rescuers are without contact with 10 people,” at the mine in Zofiowka, the JSW company said in a statement.

A tremor shook the mine at 3.40am, sparking a methane leak, the company said.

In 2018, five miners were killed in an earthquake that struck the same mine.

JSW is also the owner of a mine in Pniowek some 230km south, where an accident on Wednesday killed five and left seven missing.

The search for the seven was called off yesterday because conditions in the pit were too dangerous for rescuers, JSW said.

Analysis of the situation “has forced us to abandon the rescue operation undertaken to evacuate the seven miners” still trapped, JSW company chief Tomasz Cudny told reporters yesterday, after a blast ripped through the pit, injuring 10, as rescuers were trying to install a new ventilation duct.

“It’s a very tough decision,” Cudny said.

“It would be irresponsible to send rescuers into so dangerous an area,” Cudny said.

Poland, which relies on coal for most of its power, has faced several other mining accidents in recent years.

In addition to the 2018 accident in Zofiowka, last year two men were killed and two others injured when an underground wall collapsed at the southern Myslowice-Wesola mine.