{"id":23766,"date":"2024-09-23T04:24:22","date_gmt":"2024-09-23T04:24:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/swn.af\/en\/?p=23766"},"modified":"2024-09-23T04:43:20","modified_gmt":"2024-09-23T04:43:20","slug":"blast-in-iranian-coal-mine-kills-at-least-51-people","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/swn.af\/en\/2024\/09\/blast-in-iranian-coal-mine-kills-at-least-51-people\/","title":{"rendered":"Blast in Iranian coal mine kills at least 51 people"},"content":{"rendered":"

MONITORING (SW) – A blast caused by a gas leak at an Iranian coal mine has killed at least 51 people, state media said on Sunday, in one of the country\u2019s deadliest work accidents in years.<\/strong><\/p>\n

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\u201cThe number of dead workers increased to 51\u201d in the explosion at the Tabas mine in eastern Iran, the official IRNA<\/em> news agency reported, revising an earlier death toll of 30.<\/p>\n

It added that 20 other people were injured.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

The explosion occurred at around 9pm (1730 GMT) on Saturday, when around 70 workers were present at the site in South Khorasan province,\u00a0IRNA<\/em>\u00a0said.<\/p>\n

According to the report, a leak of methane gas led to the blast in two blocks of the mine, which is owned by private Iranian firm Madanjoo.<\/p>\n

State TV broadcast footage of ambulances and helicopters arriving at Tabas to transport the injured to hospital.<\/p>\n

Online footage carried by\u00a0IRNA<\/em>\u00a0showed bodies of some of the victims, wearing their work uniform, carried out of the site on mining carts.<\/p>\n

South Khorasan Gover\u00adnor Javad Ghenaat told state TV that rescue teams were working to recover the remaining bodies.<\/p>\n

An apparent \u201cgas condensation\u201d in the mine is believed to be the cause of the explosion, said Iranian Interior Minister Eskandar Momeni, who was headed to Tabas.<\/p>\n

Iran\u2019s President Masoud Pezeshkian, in remarks carried by state TV before he departed for the UN General Assembly in New York, offered his condolences to the families of the victims and ordered a probe into the deadly incident.<\/p>\n

\u201cUnfortunately, we learned that an accident occurred in one of the coal mines in Tabas and a number of our compatriots lost their lives. I offer my condolences to their respected families,\u201d Pezeshkian said.<\/p>\n

His first vice president, Mohammad Reza Aref, spoke with cabinet members to ensure \u201cemergency follow-up\u201d and support for the victims and their families,\u00a0IRNA<\/em>\u00a0said.<\/p>\n

The authorities have announced three days of public mourning in the eastern province after the blast, according to local media.<\/p>\n

Iran\u2019s Red Crescent said search and rescue operations were underway in the mine, where some workers remained trapped.<\/p>\n

According to\u00a0IRNA<\/em>, they were about 250 metres below the surface, cut off from rescuers by chambers that had filled up with concentrated methane gas.<\/p>\n

\u201cGas accumulation in the mine\u201d has made the search operations difficult, local prosecutor Ali Nesaei was quoted by\u00a0IRNA<\/em>\u00a0as saying.<\/p>\n

\u201cCurrently, the priority is to provide aid to the injured and pull people from under the rubble,\u201d Nesaei said.<\/p>\n

He added that \u201cthe negligence and fault of the relevant agents will be dealt with\u201d later on.<\/p>\n

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Last year, an explosion at a coal mine in the northern city of Damghan killed six people, also likely the result of methane leak, according to local media.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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In May 2021, two miners died in a collapse at the same site, local media reported at the time, reported AFP.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

A blast in 2017 killed 43 miners in the northern Iranian city of Azad Shahr, triggering anger toward Iranian authorities.<\/div>\n
ENDS<\/strong><\/em><\/h6>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A blast caused by a gas leak at an Iranian coal mine has killed at least 51 people, state media said on Sunday, in one of the country\u2019s deadliest work accidents in years.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":23767,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[990,16,982,233,7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23766","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-latest","category-report","category-international","category-iran","category-headline"],"views":42,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/swn.af\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23766","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/swn.af\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/swn.af\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/swn.af\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/swn.af\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23766"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/swn.af\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23766\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23773,"href":"https:\/\/swn.af\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23766\/revisions\/23773"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/swn.af\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23767"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/swn.af\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23766"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/swn.af\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23766"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/swn.af\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23766"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}