At least three miners have died after a methane gas explosion caused a coal mine to collapse in a remote area of southwest Pakistan, officials said Friday, as authorities launched an operation to rescue nine other missing workers.
Abdul Ghani, a mines inspector, said the blast happened on Thursday night in Singidi, a town in Balochistan province. He said rescuers had retrieved the bodies of three peoples and were carefully removing debris from the mine as part of a rescue effort.
Shahid Rind, a Balochistan government spokesman, said all available resources are being used in the rescue operation. An investigation has also been ordered to determine the cause of the collapse, he said in a statement.
Safety standards can be poor in the coal mining industry, leading to accidents and fatalities in recent years.
On Thursday, Pakistani security forces rescued at least eight of 16 mine workers who had been kidnapped by local militants. Authorities said an operation was still underway to rescue the remaining miners who were in the custody of militants.
In neighboring India's northeastern Assam state, hopes are fading as the search resumed for a fifth day on Friday for several people trapped in a flooded coal mine.
At least nine miners became trapped on Monday morning after water gushed in from a nearby unused mine in the Umrangso area, in Dima Hasao district, about 125 miles (200 kilometers) south of the state capital, Guwahati. On Wednesday, army divers retrieved the body of a miner.
“There has been no success after army divers” found the victim as the “ill-fated mine is flooded, with water level not receding despite efforts to pump out the water,” said Kaushik Rai, a local government minister.
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Associated Press writer Wasbir Hussain contributed to this story from Guwahati, India
