Director of crisis management headquarters in Iran’s northeastern province of Golestan told reporters on Monday morning that rescuers have detected the remaining bodies of the coal miners and are trying to retrieve them from the mine.
22 bodies had been already recovered from ‘Zemestan-Yurt’ mine in Golestan after a gas explosion killed 35 miners on May 3.
The blast occurred at midday at a depth of 1,200 meters in the coal mine. Officials say the explosion occurred after a locomotive stalled underground and the workers tried to jump-start the vehicle with an external battery. Electric sparks triggered the explosion in the tunnel filled with methane.
In a message following the disaster, Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei expressed deep sorrow over deaths of the miners, urging various organizations to “accelerate their efforts as much as possible” to deal with the incident.