The Number of Victims from the Tabas Coal Mine Explosion is Increasing; 14 People Still Trapped

The governor of South Khorasan announced that the number of fatalities from the Tabas coal mine incident has reached 38, with 14 others trapped in Block C. According to the IRNA news agency, Javad Ghanat made this announcement on Tuesday, October 2. The statistics from the National Rescue and Relief Organization also indicate that 27 others were injured in this incident and transferred to hospitals. The explosion occurred in the tunnels of Blocks B and C of the 'Madanjooy' Tabas mine around 9 PM on Saturday, September 31, due to a methane gas accumulation that trapped 69 workers in these mines. The governor of South Khorasan explained on Tuesday regarding the rescue of the 14 trapped miners in Block C that 'the gas concentration in the tunnel of Block C, especially at the end of the mine, is very high, which has slowed down the rescue and evacuation operations, but it is continuously ongoing to reach the workshop.' According to rescue officials, the rescue operation in Tunnel C, which was the 'epicenter of the explosion,' is progressing with difficulty. Pirhossein Kolivand, the head of the Iranian Red Crescent Society, stated on Sunday that due to the 'increased gas concentration,' the rescue process has become 'much slower than before.' Iskandar Momeni, the Minister of Interior, also stated on Sunday night that rescue forces are '400 meters away' from where the workers are trapped. This incident has led to the declaration of three days of public mourning in South Khorasan. Senior national officials, including the Minister of Industry, Mine and Trade, the Minister of Labor, and the Deputy Speaker of Parliament, have visited the site of the incident, and the Islamic Consultative Assembly has announced that it will investigate the dimensions of this tragedy. Ali Nasai Zahan, the prosecutor of South Khorasan, announced that no one has been arrested in connection with the culprits of this incident so far, and they are waiting for expert opinions. Islamic Republic officials have expressed condolences and spoken about pursuing the reasons for this explosion and punishing those responsible. Ali Khamenei, the leader of the Islamic Republic, also called for 'maximum efforts from officials' to rescue the trapped workers and urged them to 'take any necessary action to mitigate the dimensions of this disaster.' However, several officials and union representatives have pointed to the dangerous conditions of most mines in Iran. Shahbaz Hassanpour, a representative from Kerman and a member of the Industries and Mines Commission of the Islamic Consultative Assembly, stated on Sunday night in a television program that 'the condition of coal mines in Kerman is a hundred times worse than that of the Tabas mine.' He also said he has asked the Ministers of Labor and Industry to 'help the coal mines.' Meanwhile, the Tejarat News website reported that the Tabas mine explosion was the twelfth incident in Iranian mines during the first six months of this year. Farshad Ismaili, a labor activist, pointed out his warnings in recent years about the 'disastrous state of mines in terms of safety' and wrote on the social media platform X: 'The body of the fourth worker from Shazand has not yet been retrieved after several months; we must count the number of fatalities from the Tabas mine.' On the other hand, the Tasnim news agency reported that after the bodies of the deceased were transferred to the forensic medicine, it became clear that the city of Tabas only has space for eight corpses in its cold storage; however, shortly after, the mayor of Tabas denied the cold storage shortage, stating that a 'space similar to a cold storage' with a capacity to hold 30 corpses has been established. Meanwhile, Stefan Priesner, the UN Resident Coordinator in Iran, expressed condolences to the families of the deceased. Peter Stano, spokesperson for the EU's foreign policy, also expressed condolences to the victims on social media and stated that the EU is following the rescue operations. The number of workplace accidents in Iran is high, mainly due to the lack of standard equipment and working conditions, and according to the Forensic Medicine Organization, in the year 1402, there were 2,115 fatalities and over 27,000 injuries from workplace accidents. The explosion at the Yurt mine in 1396, which killed 44 people, is still referred to as the deadliest mining accident in Iran.