An explosion inside a coal mine in southwest Pakistan killed at least 32 miners Thursday and trapped 10 others underground in what officials believed to be life-threatening conditions as rescuers raced to reach them.
The blast was apparently triggered by a buildup of methane gas and occurred on the outskirts of the Baluchistan provincial capital of Quetta, said government mine inspector Ghani Baloch.
The bodies of seven people were recovered hours after the blast, and emergency responders later found 25 more bodies, officials and a provincial disaster management agency said in a statement. It said the search and rescue operation was continuing, with rescue teams working to locate and recover the remaining trapped miners.
Baloch said rescue operations would continue until all the trapped miners were found, but he added that officials believed the death toll was likely to rise further.
