Death toll rises to at least 34 after blast at Pakistan coal mine complex
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Rescue workers and residents gathering at a coal mine after a blast on the outskirts of Quetta, Pakistan, on July 30.
PHOTO: EPA
- An explosion at a coal mine complex in Balochistan, Pakistan, killed at least 34 miners on July 30.
- Rescue operations continue to find two miners still trapped at a depth of 1,219 metres.
- The blast was caused by a powerful methane gas explosion damaging two nearby mines in the Sorange area near Quetta.
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QUETTA, Pakistan – An explosion buried parts of a mining complex and killed at least 34 miners in Pakistan’s Balochistan province on July 30, a Pakistani official said.
A rescue operation is still under way to find and recover the remaining two trapped miners, said Muhammad Fahad, director of operations for the Provincial Disaster Management Authority.
Shoaib Nosherwani, Balochistan’s minister for mines and mineral development, earlier told Reuters that 36 people were in the collapsed part of the complex at the time of the explosion.
Rescue efforts were under way at a depth of 1,219m, said Muhammad Atif, the chief inspector of mines in the province.
Abdul Ghani Baloch, a senior government mining official in the region, told Reuters that “two mines close to each other were damaged in a powerful methane gas explosion”.
The incident occurred in Sorange, a remote area near the provincial capital Quetta. REUTERS
