A woman crying in front of the Zofiowka coal mine in Jastrzebie-Zdroj in southern Poland, on Saturday, May 5, 2018, after miners were reported missing following a powerful tremor at the mine. WARSAW, Poland — The Latest on missing coal miners in Poland (all times local):

A Polish mining company says two missing miners have been found hurt but conscious but rescuers are still trying to reach five other missing miners after a tremor at a coal mine in southern Poland. Katarzyna Jablonska-Bajer of the Jastrzebie Coal Company said Saturday that rescuers have reached two out of the seven miners missing at the Zofiowka mine following a 3.4 magnitude tremor in the town of Jastrzebie-Zdroj. (AP Photo/Rafal Klimkiewicz)

The rescue was launched at 11:25 a.m. Saturday after a quake hit the Zofiowka coal mine in the town of Jastrzebie-Zdroj near Poland's border with the Czech Republic. She said four miners were quickly brought to the surface but contact was lost with seven others who were 900 meters (2,950 feet) underground, preparing a new corridor for extraction work. "There has never been such a powerful quake at the mine,'' Jablonska-Bajer said

High methane levels in the mine delayed rescuers' effort to reach the accident site for several hours. Poland's State Mining Authority said the tremor had a magnitude of 3.4 on the Richter scale, while the European Mediterranean Seismological Centre pegged it at 4.3 magnitude. TVN24 said the tremor was also felt on the surface and shook some houses. "There has never been such a powerful tremor at the mine," she said, adding that rescuers cannot go to the site because of high methane levels in the mine. Coal mining is a major industry in Poland and coal remains the main source of energy and heating, but Poland is taking some steps to shift toward renewable, cleaner sources of energy. The Main Statistical Office says some 65.8 million metric tons (58.7 million tonnes) of coal were extracted last year in Poland, some 4.8 million tons less than in 2016.
An earthquake strikes a coal mine near Jastrzębie-Zdrój, Poland; rescuers have thus far recovered two miners alive and located a third, while four remain unaccounted for.