A deadly methane blast ripped through a coal mine in southern Pakistan, leaving at least 34 workers dead and prompting an urgent search for miners still unaccounted for, according to the provincial disaster agency.
The explosion struck yesterday at a mine near the capital of Balochistan, Pakistan’s resource-rich southwestern province, shattering the underground site and setting off a rescue effort that stretched late into the night.
“According to information received from the deployed teams, 34 bodies have been recovered,” southern Balochistan’s provincial disaster management authority said in a statement in the early hours of this morning.
“The joint rescue operation is still underway to locate and recover the remaining trapped miners,” it added, without specifying how many were in the mine when the explosion took place.
Such incidents are a grim reality of Pakistan’s mining industry, with accidents frequently reported, particularly in Balochistan.
Despite its vast territory—Pakistan’s largest province by landmass—Balochistan is also the country’s poorest and trails other regions across key measures such as education, employment and economic development.
