At least 51 people have been killed and 20 were injured after a gas leak sparked an explosion at a coal mine in eastern Iran, state media said on Sunday.
More than 20 others were reported missing after the explosion in Tabas, which is in the South Khorasan province, 335 miles southeast of the capital Tehran.
The blast was caused by a methane gas explosion in two blocks of the mine, state media reported.
There were 69 workers in the blocks at the time of the explosion, South Khorasan’s governor Javad Ghenaatzadeh said.
According to the AP news agency, he said: “There was an explosion and unfortunately 69 people were working in the B and C blocks of Madanjoo mine,” he said.
“In block C there were 22 people and in block B there were 47 people.”
The official IRNA news agency said that the “number of dead workers increased to 51 and the number of injured increased to 20”.
Citing the head of Iran’s Red Crescent, public broadcasters claimed that 24 people were missing.
Mohammad-Ali Akhondi, the director general of the provincial crisis management department, told IRNA that at least 51 workers suffocated due to the rapid release of methane and carbon monoxide.
He added that the death toll is expected to rise as rescue operations are difficult to undertake because of conditions underground.
Mr Akhondi said “the reality is that it is a difficult task to rescue the injured from a depth of 700 meters diagonally and 250 meters vertically underground”.
Local prosecutor Ali Nesaei was quoted by state media as saying “gas accumulation in the mine” made search operations more difficult.
“Currently, the priority is to provide aid to the injured and pull people from under the rubble,” Mr Nesaei said.
He added that “the negligence and fault of the relevant agents will be dealt with” at a later date.
The explosion occurred around 9pm local time (6:30pm BST) on Saturday, IRNA reported.
President Masoud Pezeshkian expressed condolences to the victims’ families, saying that he “spoke with ministers and we will do our best to follow up”.
The Tabas mine covers an area of more than 30,000 square kilometres (nearly 11,600 square miles). It holds mass reserves of coking and thermal coal and is “considered the richest and largest coal area in Iran”, according to IRNA.
An explosion at a coal mine in the northern city of Damghan last year killed six people. Local media reported that the blast was also likely caused by a methane leak.
In May 2021, two miners died in a collapse at the same site, local media reports said.
A blast in 2017 killed 43 miners in Azad Shahr city in northern Iran, triggering anger towards Iranian authorities.
This is a breaking news story and is being updated.
