Residents Displaced in Southern Illinois Mine Collapse

BENLD, Ill. (AP) — Authorities have evacuated several southern Illinois homes in response to damage caused by sinking ground above a collapsed Macoupin County mine.

Benld (Buh-NELD) Police Chief James Zirkelbach said Wednesday that no one was injured by the mine subsidence, which covered six square blocks.

He estimated 15 homes had damaged foundations and said four homes were evacuated as a precaution after a methane gas leak was detected in one structure.

The damaged area is four blocks from the site of the former Bendl Elementary School, which was demolished and rebuilt elsewhere after a 2009 mine collapse left it unusable.

The Gillespie school district was awarded nearly $10 million in a lawsuit against Union Pacific Railroad, whose predecessors were subsidiaries of a company that mined the area where the school was built.

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