Blast in southwest Pakistan coalmine kills seven, injures three

QUETTA: Seven Pakistani miners were killed and three injured in a explosion Friday inside a coalmine in southwest Pakistan, a local mining official said. Rescue workers pulled the injured from the mine and had recovered all the bodies, said Shafqat Mahmood, a mine inspector in Baluchistan province, where the accident took place.

He said investigators were still working to determine the cause of the blast near Degari, a town about 100 kilometers (60 miles) east of Quetta, Baluchistan’s capital city. He provided no further details. Safety standards are commonly ignored in the coal mining industry in Pakistan, leading to accidents and explosions that have killed numerous mine workers in recent years.