QUETTA, March 20: Ten miners were killed and 42 others remained trapped, inside a coalmine hit by powerful methane gas explosions in Sorrange area, some 35km from here on Sunday. Provincial chief inspector of mines Mohammad Iftikhar told Dawn that rescue workers had launched a massive operation for safe recovery of trapped miners.

He said there was, however, a slim hope of survival of the trapped miners because the presence of methane gas in a huge quantity was hampering the rescue work.Fifty-two miners were working in the over 4,000-foot deep coalmine when three powerful explosions occurred at 2am. The mine owned by the state-run Pakistan Mineral Development Corporation has been leased to a contractor.

“The contractor was asked in writing two weeks ago by the chief inspector of mines to stop mining because of the huge quantity of methane gas there,” Home Secretary Akbar Hussain Durrani told Dawn.

He said an inquiry would be held after the rescue operation was completed.

Sources said that 52 miners had gone inside the mine at about 11pm. After about three hours a powerful explosion took place and a big portion of the mine collapsed, trapping all the workers thousands of feet deep.

After hearing the blasts, other miners and rescue workers rushed to the place for rescue work, but several workers fell unconscious.

The chief inspector of mines and rescue teams from Quetta also reached there.

“The powerful blasts rocked the entire coal-field and blew up roofs of many nearby houses,” said Bakht Gul Yousufzai, a mine worker who was there when blasts took place.

Rescue workers were trying to dig out an alternative route to reach the miners. Till late in the night, 10 bodies had been retrieved.

“We are trying to recover the victims,” the chief inspector of mines said, adding that the operation might take three to four days or even more.

“There is no chance of survival of any miner,” Bakht Nawaz, a leader of the Mine Workers Federation, told Dawn.

Most of the miners belonged to Swat and Malakand. The bodies retrieved so far are being sent to their native towns.

Army troops have been moved to the coalmine for expediting the rescue work.

Official sources said the army had also dispatched relief goods for families of the victims. An army medical team has also reached the area.

Meanwhile, Balochistan Governor Zulfiqar Ali Magsi and Chief Minister Aslam Raisani have expressed deep concern and sorrow over the loss of human lives in the accident.