QUETTA, July 16 — Pakistani authorities said today they had rescued one miner who survived two days trapped in a coal mine after a fire that killed nine other workers in central Pakistan.
An electrical short circuit sparked the blaze on Sunday at the mine east of Quetta, the capital of oil and mineral rich Balochistan province.
Eleven miners were working around 4,000 feet (1,200 metres) underground at the time. One was quickly saved but poisonous carbon monoxide gas hampered rescue efforts.
Officials confirmed on Tuesday that just one of the remaining ten had been discovered alive.
“We have found nine dead bodies,” Abdullah Shahwani, a top provincial official for the industry, told AFP.
The surviving miner was critically injured, he said.
Provincial government spokesman Liaquat Shahwani confirmed the toll.
The coal mine is run by the state-owned Pakistan Mineral Development Corporation.
Most coal mines in the impoverished province are notorious for poor safety standards and facilities, and similar deadly accidents have occurred in the past. — AFP
