The Number of Deceased Found in the Yurt Mine Reaches 35

The head of crisis management in Golestan province announced early on May 18 that the bodies of 13 more miners had been found in the depths of the accident-stricken Yurt mine. With this, the number of fatalities from the explosion at this mine has reached 35. Iranian news agencies, citing senior officials from the crisis management of Golestan province, report that efforts to recover the newly found bodies are ongoing. No news or reports have been published regarding the transfer of the bodies from the accident site in the mine. Sadegh Ali-Moghadam, the head of crisis management in Golestan, told reporters that rescuers have managed to reach the location where the miners' bodies were trapped through tunnel number two. Hamidreza Montazeri, his deputy, also told ILNA news agency that the identities of the deceased are still unknown. Previously, Esmail Najjar, the head of the crisis management organization, stated that 35 workers were trapped in the tunnel following the Yurt incident. However, Mr. Montazeri told ILNA that 'the search operation has not concluded' and that the search 'for potential bodies continues.' The number of bodies found or transferred outside the mine was reported to be 22 by early Monday. The Yurt mine incident in Azadshahr, Golestan province, occurred on May 13 following an explosion. Government officials say investigations into the cause or causes of the incident are underway. On Sunday, Hassan Rouhani, the President of Iran, who visited the site, faced protests and slogans from some demonstrators present. Mr. Rouhani left the site amid the protests. The Iranian President also stated to the families of the deceased that 'the responsible parties and anyone at fault must be identified, and appropriate action must be taken against that fault, with no exceptions in this regard, and this is a matter that the government and I personally emphasize.' The Yurt mine in Azadshahr has five active tunnels for extracting 'coke' stone and one tunnel ready for operation, with an annual extraction capacity of 100,000 tons.