At least 19 people killed in mine explosion in eastern Iran

At least 19 people have been killed in a gas explosion at a mine in Tabas town of eastern Iran's South Khorasan province. This was announced by the director general of the region's crisis management on Sunday, September 22.

"The director general of South Khorasan province's crisis management office announced that the death toll in the Tabas mine accident <...> amounted to 19 people and the number of injured was 17," Iran's Donya-e-Eqtesad newspaper quoted him as saying.

He also said 69 workers were working in Blocks C and B of the Tabas coal mine at the time of the explosion. The provincial crisis management director general also said the mine explosion was not a fire and clarified that methane gas emission in the tunnels caused suffocation of people working in the mine.

"Due to the concentration of gas in the tunnels that caused the explosion at a depth of 250 meters in the mine, rescue work is being carried out by eight specialized teams of five people each," he said.

Earlier, on September 18, it was reported that a hydrogen sulfide leak at a mine in Uzbekistan killed four people and injured 11 others. A similar incident occurred at the same mine on September 1, then there were no casualties.