BDRunner Desk, March 20:- At least 12 workers were killed in an explosion at a coal mine in Balochistan province of Pakistan. 8 more people who were trapped in the mine after the explosion were rescued. Local officials said on Wednesday that an explosion occurred in a mine in the Jardalo area of Balochistan’s Harnai district.
Earlier, at least 18 workers were reported trapped after a section of the mine sank after a powerful explosion on Wednesday night. The chief inspector of Pakistan’s Department of Mines said that the rescue operation has started in the mine.
However, Balochistan mine inspector Abdul Ghani Baloch said early Wednesday, “The rescue operation has just finished.” He said there were 20 workers in the mine when the methane gas exploded. He said that the members of the rescue team recovered the dead bodies of 12 people. The survivors were taken to the hospital after being rescued.
“Two bodies were recovered at night,” he told AFP. The bodies of the remaining 10 people were recovered early in the morning.” Abdullah Shahwani, director general of the province’s Directorate of Mines, also confirmed the death toll in the mine blast.
The mine, about 80 km east of Quetta, was initially thought to have only 10 workers. Rescue workers from the government’s mining department and disaster management agency continued overnight operations to reach the workers.
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif issued a statement expressing “deep grief and sorrow” over the casualties in the mine accident. According to Radio Pakistan, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has directed the concerned to provide all possible treatment to the injured miners.
A year ago, at least six miners were killed in a gas explosion at a coal mine in Harnai district. Earlier, in May 2018, at least 23 people were killed and 11 injured in a gas explosion at two coal mines located side by side in the same region. Before that, in 2011, 43 workers lost their lives in a gas explosion in another coal mine in Balochistan.
