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Two dead and dozens trapped in Iranian coal mine following explosion - UPDATED

Two dead and dozens trapped in Iranian coal mine following explosion - <span style="color: red;">UPDATED

03 May 2017 15:30 (UTC +04:00)

About 90 coal workers were trapped underground on Wednesday when a mine collapsed in northern Iran, apparently after a gas explosion, APA reported citing The New York Times.

At least two workers were killed and 25 others were wounded in the blast at the Zemestan-Yurt mine, near the town of Azadshahr in Golestan Province.

Sescue workers are trying to help the wounded, and a local judicial official said that sniffer dogs and rescue teams were being sent to the area.

“We are trying to save all trapped miners,” the official, Pir Hossein Koulivand, told the news agency Fars. He said that one group of 40 workers had been trapped in one shaft and 50 more were trapped in another.

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16:19

More than 50 miners were trapped after a huge explosion in a coal mine in northern Iran on Wednesday, and some were feared to have died, APA reported citing Reuters.

The reports said more than a dozen injured people had been transferred to hospital after the blast at 12:45 p.m. local time in the Zemestanyurt coal mine in Golestan province.