An explosion inside a coal mine in southwest Pakistan has left 12 miners dead while eight others have been rescued, officials said on Wednesday.
A gas explosion shook the private coal pit in Balochistan's mining region of Khost on Tuesday evening, trapping the workers about 800 feet (244 meters) below ground.
The bodies of the dead were all recovered as the rescue operation ended on Wednesday morning.
"The rescue operation has been just completed," Balochistan province's chief inspector of mines, Abdul Ghani Baloch, told news agencies on Wednesday.
He said that 20 miners had been inside the mine when the explosion took place.
The injured have been taken to hospital, he added.
Possible methane gas incident
According to news agency AFP, Abdullah Shahwani, Balochistan's director general of mining, also confirmed the death toll and said that "initial reports suggest the incident was caused by methane gas."
Pakistan's Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif in a statement expressed his grief over the deaths.
Pakistan's mines are known to have hazardous working conditions and poor safety standards and deadly incidents are not uncommon.
