Around 80 workers trapped by a fire in a zinc mine in Garpenberg, northern Sweden have now been evacuated, mine owner Boliden said on Thursday.
Two of the workers have been taken for further medical checks, the company said.
"We are ventilating the smoke, debriefing staff and making sure everybody is feeling alright," Boliden spokesman Klas Nilsson said. "With what happened in the mine, we will probably see some effect (on zinc extraction), but not to the extent that it is significant for us."
Police said earlier that a machine had caught fire in the mine, forcing the workers to seek shelter in one of the emergency rooms below ground.
News agency TT said fire crews and Boliden's own fire service had extinguished the blaze.
(Reporting by Simon Johnson and Niklas Pollard; Editing by Susan Fenton and Elaine Hardcastle)
