Explosion at coal mine kills 34 in southern Pakistan

QUETTA, July 31: A blast at a coal mine killed at least 34 workers in southern Pakistan, the provincial disaster agency said on Friday, as rescuers searched for more missing miners.

The explosion, suspected to be caused by methane gas, tore through the mine near the capital of the resource-rich province of Balochistan on Thursday, sparking a rescue operation that ran through 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 Friday.

"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.�" AFP