Image copyright Reuters Image caption The explosion is believed to have happened during a change of shift at the mine

The bodies of at least 21 miners trying to help colleagues trapped after an explosion in a coal mine in northern Iran have been recovered, state media has reported. "Twenty-one bodies of workers ...have been taken out of the mine ...So far there have been 69 injured," a regional official in Golestan province told the semi-official Tasnim news agency. The report quoted Sadegh Ali Moghadam, the provincial director general of disaster management, as warning of the “possibility of the death toll rising.”

Moghadam said about 35 people are now thought to have been trapped inside the mine. The province will observe three days of mourning after the explosion, Iranian state television reported. Khamenei said, “It is required that all possible measures are taken to rescue the stranded people.”

Meanwhile, President Hassan Rouhani issued an order demanding his government use all available resources to rescue those still trapped, according to the state-run IRNA news agency. State media reported that the mine employed some 500 workers and that the explosion - which took place at about 12:45 (09:45 GMT) - happened during a change of shift. Several officials blamed the explosion on an accumulation of methane gas and said it was affecting rescue efforts. At least 25 people who had entered the mine to try to save those trapped had to be taken to the hospital after inhaling the gas, said Hamidreza Montazeri, the deputy head of the emergency management department in Golestan. Ambulances, helicopters and other rescue vehicles raced to the scene in Iran’s northern Golestan province as authorities worked to determine the scale of the emergency. Pir Hossein Kolivand, who runs Iran’s emergency department, later said that as many as 80 miners could be trapped in two sections of the mine. Semi-official Iranian news agencies posted pictures online from the scene, showing ambulances and emergency workers gathered at the mouth of the mine. Some showed dazed workers, covered in coal dust, being helped by bystanders or laying on the ground as rescuers rushed to assist with oxygen canisters. More than 500 workers are employed at the Zemestanyurt mine, which lies 14 kilometers (9 miles) from Azadshahr, according to IRNA. Iran extracted 1.68 million tons of coal in 2016, an increase on previous years, thanks to an easing of international sanctions.
An explosion at a coal mine near Azadshahr, Iran, kills at least 35 miners and traps 39 others, according to state media.