Severe floods threaten historic Romanian salt mine
The floods in recent days have swollen a stream near the partially inundated salt mine, which has been shut down since 5 May.
The mine is among the biggest tourist attractions in northern Romania, with almost half a million people visiting the site in 2024, and many locals have depended on tourism related to the mine for decades.
"We have to save not just the salt mine there, but the entire community, with thousands of people in danger of not being able to put a loaf of bread on the table," Environment Minister Mircea Fechet told a local TV station Friday, saying "a real tragedy" was hitting the region.
According to the National Salt Company, underground stockpiles of salt "have been compromised, including equipment and machinery that can no longer be recovered".
Due to heavy rainfall in May, the Corund stream near the Praid mine recorded its highest flow rate in the last 30 years, official data this week showed.
But there is no imminent risk of collapse at the mine, said Petres Sandor, an official in Harghita county where the mine is located, which is also home to the largest ethnic Hungarian population in Romania.
"The biggest problem is to stop the possibility of water infiltration in order to start the underground work," he said.
"A very big danger is related to the state of mind of the population. Unfortunately, it's a feeling of the end of the world," Sandor added, urging tourists not to cancel their reservations.
Some locals protested in front of the mine's administrative headquarters on Thursday, voicing anger over preventive measures not having been taken in the past.
Hungary's nationalist Prime Minister Viktor Orban vowed "financial and practical assistance for the assessment of the damages and reconstruction of the mine" in a Facebook post on Wednesday.
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France 24
4 days ago
- France 24
Severe floods threaten historic Romanian salt mine
The floods in recent days have swollen a stream near the partially inundated salt mine, which has been shut down since 5 May. The mine is among the biggest tourist attractions in northern Romania, with almost half a million people visiting the site in 2024, and many locals have depended on tourism related to the mine for decades. "We have to save not just the salt mine there, but the entire community, with thousands of people in danger of not being able to put a loaf of bread on the table," Environment Minister Mircea Fechet told a local TV station Friday, saying "a real tragedy" was hitting the region. According to the National Salt Company, underground stockpiles of salt "have been compromised, including equipment and machinery that can no longer be recovered". Due to heavy rainfall in May, the Corund stream near the Praid mine recorded its highest flow rate in the last 30 years, official data this week showed. But there is no imminent risk of collapse at the mine, said Petres Sandor, an official in Harghita county where the mine is located, which is also home to the largest ethnic Hungarian population in Romania. "The biggest problem is to stop the possibility of water infiltration in order to start the underground work," he said. "A very big danger is related to the state of mind of the population. Unfortunately, it's a feeling of the end of the world," Sandor added, urging tourists not to cancel their reservations. Some locals protested in front of the mine's administrative headquarters on Thursday, voicing anger over preventive measures not having been taken in the past. Hungary's nationalist Prime Minister Viktor Orban vowed "financial and practical assistance for the assessment of the damages and reconstruction of the mine" in a Facebook post on Wednesday.
Euronews
6 days ago
- Euronews
Severe flooding cripples Romania's historic Praid salt mine
Heavy flooding in Romania's Harghita County — the worst in the past three decades — has led to critical conditions at the historical Praid salt mine, one of Europe's largest salt reserves and a major tourist attraction in the country, authorities said. According to County Prefect Petres Sandor, the inflow of water is uncontrollable. "We lost the fight with nature. The water has started to enter the salt mine again, with a flow that cannot be controlled at the moment," Sandor told local press. "Authorities will carry out an expertise as soon as possible to establish the condition of the walls, the pillars inside the mine, and to decide what to do next," he added. The Praid salt mine dates back to Roman times. In recent times, the attraction on the Via Transilvanica long-distance trail also served as a medical centre and a tourist destination, including an adventure park, a cinema, a small museum and other facilities, all located some 120 metres underground. The authorities are yet to determine the extent of the salt mine emergency and the impact of the flooding. "The situation is complicated. When water comes into contact with the salt, it immediately melts it and makes a hole," Sorin Rindasu, head of the Emergency Situations department in the Romanian Waters Administration, said. The flow of the Corund stream increased, resulting in the water further pouring into the mine, he added. Authorities say that although the situation is critical, the flooding will not destabilise the entire mine. "it would take quite a while for the water to dissolve so much salt inside to pose a problem of stability, we are talking about months, years, not days, weeks, in any case," Sandor said. In recent years, water leaks have already posed a problem to the mine, and authorities have carried out works to prevent infiltration. The Romanian government offered assistance to the region to deal with the emergency situation, and the ministry of economy assured the residents that it would make further investments to reduce the impact of the salt mine's flooding on Romanian tourism and reopen the mine for visitors.
France 24
15-05-2025
- France 24
'Unscientific' Japan megaquake rumours spook Hong Kong tourists
People from Hong Kong made nearly 2.7 million trips to Japan in 2024. Although it is impossible to know exactly when earthquakes will hit, fear-inducing predictions have spread widely among the city's residents. Some of the false posts cite a Japanese manga comic, republished in 2021, which predicts a major natural disaster in July 2025 -- based on the author's dream. Other posts give different dates, while a Facebook group that claims to predict disasters in Japan has over a quarter of a million members, mainly in Hong Kong and Taiwan. "The earthquake prophecy has absolutely caused a big change to our customers' preferences," said Frankie Chow, head of Hong Kong travel agency CLS Holiday. Chow told AFP that in March and April his company received 70-80 percent fewer inquiries about travelling to Japan than last year. "I've never experienced this before," said Chow, who also runs the booking website While some people changed their destination, others "did not dare to travel", he said. Mild to moderate earthquakes are common in Japan, where strict building codes minimise damage, even from larger shakes. But the nation is no stranger to major disasters, including in 2011 when a magnitude-9.0 quake triggered a tsunami that left 18,500 people dead or missing and caused a devastating meltdown at the Fukushima nuclear plant. Earthquakes are very rarely felt in Hong Kong, but some people are easily spooked by disinformation, Chow said. 'Megaquake' warning Last month, Tokyo's Cabinet Office said on social media platform X: "Predicting earthquakes by date, time and place is not possible based on current scientific knowledge." A Cabinet Office official told AFP that the X post was part of its usual information-sharing about earthquakes. But Japan's Asahi Shimbun daily reported that it was responding to prophecies that sprung up online after a Japanese government panel in January released a new estimate for the probability of a "megaquake". The panel said the chance of a massive earthquake along the undersea Nankai Trough south of Japan in the next three decades had marginally increased to 75-82 percent. This was followed by a new damage estimate in March from the Cabinet Office, which said a Nankai Trough megaquake and tsunami could cause 298,000 deaths in Japan. Despite being a routine update of a previous 2014 figure, the estimate appears to have fanned tourists' fears. A YouTube video featuring a feng shui master urging viewers not to visit Japan, published by local media outlet HK01, has been viewed more than 100,000 times. Don Hon, one of Hong Kong's 7.5 million residents, does not entirely believe the online claims, but has still been influenced by them. "I will just take it as a precaution, and won't make any particular plans to travel to Japan," the 32-year-old social worker said. And if a friend were to ask him to visit Japan in July, Hon "might suggest going somewhere else". 'No reason to worry' Hong Kong-based Greater Bay Airlines has reduced flights to Japan's southern Tokushima region, a local tourism official told AFP. "The company told us demand has rapidly decreased amid rumours there will be a big quake and tsunami in Japan this summer," she said. "Three scheduled weekly round-trip flights will be reduced to two round-trips per week from May 12 to October 25." The airline is also reducing its flights to Sendai in the northern region of Miyagi. "There's no reason to worry," Miyagi's governor Yoshihiro Murai reassured travellers, adding that Japanese people are not fleeing. But "if unscientific rumours on social media are impacting tourism, that would be a major problem", he said last month. According to the Japan National Tourism Organization, the number of Hong Kong visitors in March stood at 208,400 -- down nearly 10 percent year-on-year. However, this decline was partly due to the Easter holidays starting in mid-April this year, instead of March, they said. Hong Kong-based EGL Tours has not seen a massive decline in customers travelling to Japan, its executive director Steve Huen Kwok-chuen said. But recent bookings at its two hotels in Japan show fewer from Hong Kong guests, while the number from other global destinations remains stable. In any case, in the likely event that the predictions do not come to pass, "people will realise it's not true", he said. © 2025 AFP
