A police officer secures a site as he stands amid the damages in the aftermath of an attack on a police station in Karachi, Pakistan February 17, 2023. Islamists stormed a police station in the southern Pakistani city of Karachi on Friday, killing two people in a hail of gunfire and a series of loud explosions before they themselves were killed, officials said. REUTERS/Akhtar Soomro
TEMPO.CO, Quetta - Twelve miners were killed and eight rescued after an explosion in a coal mine in southwestern Pakistan, officials said on Wednesday, March 20.
"The rescue operation has been just completed," said Balochistan province's chief inspector of mines, Abdul Ghani Baloch, on Wednesday morning. He said that 20 miners had been inside the mine when a methane gas explosion took place overnight.
He added that rescue teams recovered 12 bodies while the survivors had been taken to hospital.
Coal deposits are found in the western areas of Pakistan that sit near the Afghan border and mine accidents are common, mainly due to gas build-ups.
Mine workers have complained that a lack of safety gear and poor working conditions are the key causes of frequent accidents, labor union officials have said in the past.
