(Newser)
–
A group of Italian miners has seized roughly 770 pounds of explosives and barricaded itself underground in an attempt to pressure the Italian government into protecting the mine, Reuters reports. The government is meeting later this week to discuss the Sardinian mine's future, and many workers fear officials will decide to close it. As many as 100 of the mine's 460 workers locked themselves inside overnight. "We are afraid for our jobs," one miner explains.
"We are prepared to stay here until we hear a response from the government that secures the future of the mine. We will stay here indefinitely." That wouldn't be a first for the country's sole coal mine: Reuters reports workers previously camped out in one of its tunnels for 100 days in a 1995 protest.
