A rescue operation in Colorado on Thursday to bring trapped mining tour visitors out of an underground mine was successful, seven hours after one person died and four others were injured.
Gov. Jared Polis announced that the twelve people who were trapped in the Mollie Kathleen Gold Mine for 6 hours have been successfully rescued.
“I am relieved,” Polis said in a prepared statement.
The popular tourist attraction where they used to mine for gold is located in Cripple Creek. Teller County Sheriff Jason Mikesell said in an afternoon news conference that the trolley car that goes down the elevator as part of the tour was 500 feet under the ground when a mechanical issue happened. That led to the injuries and the death. So far it’s not clear exactly how the victim died.
Mikesell said the fatal victim and the four people injured were part of a group that was removed from the mine, but another group of 12 people 1,000 feet down wound up being unable to surface due to the safety issue.