Iranian authorities announced Tuesday that all remaining workers trapped by an explosion at a coal mine in the country’s east are presumed dead, raising the death toll to at least 49 in one of Iran’s worst industrial disasters.
Mohammad Ali Akhoundi, a provincial emergency official, provided the updated casualty count in a report aired on Iranian state television from the mine in Tabas, located about 540 kilometers (335 miles) southeast of Tehran.
The methane gas leak on Saturday sparked an explosion at the Tabas Parvadeh 5 mine, operated by Mandanjoo Co. Approximately 70 people were working at the time of the blast. Recovered bodies showed no signs of blast injuries, suggesting many workers died from gas inhalation before the explosion.
Zahra Saeedi, a lawmaker and member of parliament’s mine committee, reported that the mine’s safety system was not operational and “even the central alarm system was broken or did not exist.” She added that workers were aware of safety issues just before the disaster but couldn’t evacuate in time.
Iran’s newly elected reformist president, Masoud Pezeshkian, currently in New York for the U.N. General Assembly, has ordered a full investigation into the explosion and called for all efforts to be made to aid the families of the victims.
This disaster highlights ongoing safety concerns in Iran’s mining industry. In 2017, a similar coal mine explosion killed at least 42 people, prompting protests against lax safety standards and inadequate emergency services in mining areas.
As the investigation begins, questions remain about the safety procedures in place at the privately owned mine and the broader issues of industrial safety regulations in Iran.
