Six coal miners killed in blast in Pakistan's southwest

Six miners have been killed in a blast at a coal mine in southwestern Pakistan near the border with Afghanistan.

They were among eight miners trapped about 1,000 feet underground when methane gas exploded at the coal field in Marwar in the province of Balochistan, the officials said.

“Six bodies have been retrieved by the rescue team from the affected mine this morning,” a senior official of the Directorate of Mines said.

"(The) mine has been closed and an inquiry has been ordered by the Chief Inspector of Mines into the incident."

In the past year, 102 coal miners have been killed in Balochistan in 72 different incidents, Sultan Muhammad Lala, president of the Balochistan Coal Mines Workers Federation, told Reuters.

Lala said the government and mine owners were not ensuring safe working conditions at the sites.