A methane blast tore through a coal mine in southern Pakistan, killing at least 34 workers as rescuers continued searching for miners believed to be trapped underground, the provincial disaster agency said.
The explosion struck a mine near the capital of Balochistan, the country’s resource-rich southwestern province, yesterday. Rescue teams worked into the night amid efforts to reach anyone still missing.
“According to information received from the deployed teams, 34 bodies have been recovered,” the southern Balochistan provincial disaster management authority said in a statement issued in the early hours of this morning.
“The joint rescue operation is still underway to locate and recover the remaining trapped miners,” it said, without revealing how many workers were inside the mine when the blast occurred.
Balochistan is Pakistan’s poorest province and its largest by area. It trails the rest of the country across nearly every major measure, including education, employment and economic development.
