A gas explosion at a coal mine left two miners dead and dozens more trapped Wednesday in northeastern Iran, according to reports from Iran's semiofficial FARS news agency and state-run Press TV.
Officials blamed accumulated methane gas for the mine blast in the province of Golestan.
Forty miners were trapped in one section of the mine, while 30 to 40 others were trapped in another section, said Pir-Hossein Kolivand, head of Iran's Emergency Center.
Ambulances and rescue teams were dispatched to the scene of the mine blast near the city of Azadshahr.
Twenty-five people who entered the mine to help the trapped miners were taken to the hospital due to gas inhalation, said Hamidreza Montazeri, deputy head of the emergency department in Golestan province, according to Press TV.
