Kellingley pit death: Company 'at a loss' to explain incident

UK Coal executive Gareth Williams confirmed the death of a miner at the Kellingley Colliery

The company which runs a Yorkshire pit where a roof collapse killed a miner and injured another says it is "at a loss" to explain what happened.

An investigation team from police and the Health and Safety Executive has spent the night underground at Kellingley colliery in North Yorkshire.
Andrew McIntosh, UK Coal spokesman, said it was "difficult to say" what had happened.
The miner who died at the scene was in his 40s and from North Yorkshire.
The second man, who suffered minor injuries, was also in his 40s but from West Yorkshire, police said. He was taken to Pinderfields Hospital for treatment.
Yvette Cooper, Shadow Home Secretary and MP for the neighbouring Normanton, Pontefract and Castleford constituency, said she had met unions and management at Kellingley.
Ms Cooper said: "Clearly everybody wants to make sure there are the highest standards of safety.
"When this kind of thing happens, of course you have to make sure that all those questions are answered."
Gareth Williams, managing director for mining at UK Coal, which manages Kellingley, one of the UK's largest remaining deep mines, said the roof had fallen in at 16:35 BST.
The two men were brought to the surface about three hours later.
Mr Williams said: "Colleagues successfully recovered one of the two employees trapped by the lower leg. UK Coal regrets to confirm the second colleague was confirmed dead by our own team, despite our best efforts."

Kellingley Colliery is one of Britain's deepest remaining mines

Part of the mine where the accident happened is understood to be three miles lateral distance from the entrance to the pit.
The Yorkshire Ambulance Service sent a specialist hazardous area response team to the scene, together with two doctors, a rapid response vehicle, the Yorkshire Air Ambulance and an incident officer.
Tuesday's accident is the third at Kellingley in three years.
On 30 November 2010, 200 workers were evacuated from the Kellingley pit after a methane explosion underground.
Miner Ian Cameron died after equipment fell on him on 18 October 2009 and in September 2008, Don Cook died in a rock fall.