Today, 10 August, was a sad day in the Town of Handlova as it commemorated the first anniversary of the biggest single tragedy in the century-long history of the town’s mines.
It was exactly at 9.30 a.m. on this day last year that all contact was lost with a rescue team that had been sent in to the mine to put out a fire. They never came back as they together with 20 miners were killed in the resulting blast. The town’s bells started to ring at the same time today.
At the remembrance ceremony, wreaths were laid at the Horna Nitra mine-tragedy memorial, which now bears the names of 466 men who have lost their lives to the mines.