13 August 2018•Update: 13 August 2018
By Aamir Latif
KARACHI, Pakistan
All 13 miners trapped in a collapsed coal mine in Pakistan’s southwestern Balochistan province are feared dead, an official said on Monday.
“We’ve pulled out eight bodies from the collapsed mine while efforts are on to rescue the remaining five, but chances of their survival are very slim,” Iftikhar Ahmed, Balochistan’s chief inspector of mines, told Anadolu Agency.
The ill-fated miners were trapped after a mine collapsed following a gas explosion near Quetta, the capital of mineral-rich Balochistan, on Sunday.
The province -- a key route of the multi-billion-dollar China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) -- has had a history of coal mine accidents, mainly due to poor safety conditions.
Some 23 miners were killed and several injured this May in two separate coal mine accidents in Balochistan.
According to the Pakistan Central Mines Labor Federation (PCMLF), some 100-200 laborers die on average in coal mine accidents every year.
