QUETTA - Two coalmines collapsed in Quetta on Saturday killing at least 18 labourers and injuring several others.

At least 16 miners were killed and nine others wounded when a coalmine collapsed due to a gas explosion in Marwaarh area of Balochistan, which is located 45 kilometres east of Quetta, the capital of oil and gas-rich province.

“The roof caved in following an explosion triggered by the accumulation of methane gas, killing 16 miners and wounding nine others, two of them seriously,” Jawaid Shahwani, the top government official in Quetta, told AFP.

Shahwani said 25 workers were inside the mine when the explosion occurred, adding that all the injured miners had been rescued and taken to hospital.

“We are trying our best to recover bodies but it will take time as most of the bodies are buried very deep,” he said.

Deputy Commissioner Quetta Farrukh Atique said 16 people had died in the collapse. “We have recovered all the 16 bodies from the rubble caused by the collapse in the coalmine,” Atique said.

“We have also rescued six workers who are trapped in the rubble and have sent them to hospital for treatment but one miner is still trapped under the rubble,” he said.

Rescue officials said a dozen of the dead miners belonged to Shangla district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

“The collapse apparently took place because of a gas explosion and the miners working at that time were trapped inside. Some died on the spot while others who were badly injured breathed their last under the rubble,” Atique said.

Chief of Provincial Disaster Management Authority (PDMA) Muhammad Tariq also confirmed that 16 miners had been killed. “So far 16 dead bodies and six injured miners have been recovered from the mine,” he said.

Chief Inspector of Mines Iftikhar Ahmed said that 30 miners were working in three shops located in Pir Ismail area of Marwaarh at the time of explosion.

Personnel of Frontier Corps, Levies and Quick Response Force rescued the trapped miners in an unconscious state and shifted them to local hospitals. A rescue operation was still underway, Shahwani said.

The Quetta deputy commissioner, Provincial Disaster Management Authority (PDMA) rescue team, local labourers, inspector mines, Frontier Corps (FC) personnel and District Administration Levies Force were also present at the site.

In the second incident, rescue sources said, nine more workers were trapped in another mine due to gas suffocation at the Pakistan Mineral Development Corporation (PMDC) mine in Quetta.

Two bodies had been recovered and as many injured labourers evacuated, they said, adding that at least five more miners were still trapped in the mine. A local leader informed media that bodies of three miners were recovered during the rescue operation. However, the reports could not be verified independently. Rescue efforts were underway.

Mines in the countries are notorious for poor safety standards and bad ventilation. At least 43 workers were killed in March 2011 when explosions triggered a collapse in a coalmine in Balochistan.