Rescue workers on Sunday managed to pull out the bodies of seven miners who were trapped under rubble after the mine collapsed due to a methane gas explosion, according to Shahzeb Kakar, a local government official in southwestern Pakistan’s Baluchistan Province.
The mine is located in Loralai district’s Dukki town, some 145 kilometers (90 miles) off the provincial capital of Quetta.
A rescue worker also died during the search operation, Kakar said.
The body of another worker had been recovered initially, while seven others remained trapped inside, the World Bulletin website quoted Abdul Waheed Kakar, a government official in Loralai, as saying.
"Rescue workers entered the coalmine after hours-long struggle, but all seven workers had died by that time because of suffocation,” Kakar added.
"A poisonous gas penetrated inside the coal mine causing the death of seven miners,” Pakistan’s English-language newspaper, Dawn, quoted Rasheed Abro, a senior coalmine inspector, as saying.
According to Kakar, arrangements have been made to hand over the bodies to the victims’ families.
Such accidents are frequent in Pakistan mines due to poor safety measures and poorly-equipped and trained staff.
Also in early January, at least 12 workers were killed in a marble mine collapse in Pakistan’s troubled northwestern tribal region near the border with Afghanistan.
Six miners were killed in a similar methane explosion in northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province in December 2014.
Another explosion in March 2011 in Baluchistan also left 43 workers dead.
The unsafe practices of miners often go unchecked and accidents are mostly not recorded in Pakistan.