Tehran: Rescuers battled hazardous conditions on Thursday at a coal mine in northern Iran where 22 miners died in a failed attempt to save workmates trapped deep underground after an explosion.
Hopes of finding 13 missing miners alive were fading more than 28 hours after the blast on Wednesday at the mine in Azadshahr in Golestan province, where three days of mourning were declared.
The rescue operation at the Zemestan Yort mine was hampered by poisonous gases that filled the tunnels as well as by fears of a further collapse.
The removal of rubble blocking the tunnel was expected to finish by the end of Thursday, state television broadcaster quoted Labour Minister Ali Rabii as saying from the site.
Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei offered condolences for the “very bitter” tragedy.
“Efforts by various organisations will be rewarded (by God). They (should) increase their efforts as much as possible,” he said in a message.
President Hassan Rouhani also expressed sorrow for victims of the disaster.
The hope of finding the remaining miners alive “is now minimal,” Sadegh-Ali Moghadam, emergencies director in Golestan, was quoted as saying by the official IRNA news agency.
He said the bodies of 21 victims were found at a depth of 600 metres and rescue teams had descended 1,400 metres into the tunnel where the blast happened.
“The problem is the upper arch which has been weakened by the explosion. Miners are working to secure the tunnel” to be able to move forward, he said.
A 22nd body was found later but could not yet be pulled out, a provincial official told state television.
The tunnel caved in when methane gas exploded underground as workers tried to jump-start a locomotive engine, according to initial reports.
Rouhani ordered all departments “to use all equipment available to facilitate the rescue services and save those trapped”.
Images broadcast on state television IRIB showed the evacuation of injured and exhausted miners on stretchers as rescue services worked relentlessly at the entrance to one of the mine tunnels.
The army joined forces on Thursday with rescue teams by sending medics, bulldozers and trucks. — AFP
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