Blast traps at least 26 miners in Iran

An explosion at a mine in northern Iran today left at least 26 workers trapped in a mile-long tunnel filled with gas that hampered rescue efforts, media reports said.

The coal mine in Golestan province collapsed when methane gas exploded underground as workers tried to jump-start a locomotive engine, according to the reports.

Two bodies were recovered from the Zemestan Yort mine, Fars news agency cited the Red Crescent as saying.

The rescue operation was going slowly as tunnels were filled with poisonous gases and miners were stuck at the far end of a 1,000-metre (yard) shaft in a mine that is around two kilometres (1.2 miles) long.

Emergency workers had only reached a depth of 800 metres into the mine, Tasnim news agency cited Hossein Ahmadi, the director of the province’s Red Crescent, as saying.

Authorities were planning to dig a side tunnel to access the trapped workers in the mine near Azadshahr, one official there said.

Initial reports put the number of those trapped in the mine at 80, but that figure was later reduced significantly.

“According to the person in charge of the mine who has counted the workers, it is estimated that there are 26 miners stuck underground,” state broadcaster website IRIB quoted …read more