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Coal mine blast kills 7 in SW Pakistan, 6 missing

Pakistani miners gather outside the collapsed mine in Marwaarh area, 45 kilometers east of Quetta, the capital of oil- and gas-rich Baluchistan province, on May 5, 2018. (Photo by AFP)

A mine explosion in Pakistan's southwestern city of Quetta has killed at least seven coal miners, a mining official says, with authorities expecting the death toll to rise.

The bodies of the dead were recovered on Monday morning, with efforts being made to retrieve six more men trapped in the mine but feared dead.

"The explosion was caused by accumulation of methane gas," Iftikhar Ahmed, the chief inspector of mines in Baluchistan, the province home to Quetta, told Reuters.

"The miners were working at the depth of 400 feet at the time."

Explosions are not uncommon in Pakistan's coal mines, most of which are in Baluchistan and the neighboring province of Sindh, where safety measures can be lax.

In May, more than 20 miners were killed in a mine blast in Quetta.

Pakistan has huge reserves of coal, estimated at more than 184 billion tons. It produces 4 million tons of coal annually, most of which is consumed by brick-making kilns.

(Source: Reuters)


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