The number of dead bodies found in the Yurt mine has reached 35.
The Director General of Golestan Province's Crisis Management announced on the morning of May 8 that the bodies of 13 more miners had been found deep inside the damaged Yurt mine. This brings the death toll from the explosion in the mine to 35.
Iranian news agencies, citing senior officials from the Golestan province's crisis management, say efforts are ongoing to remove the newly discovered bodies. There has been no news or report yet about the bodies being moved out of the mine accident site.
Sadegh Alimoghaddam, the director general of Golestan's disaster management, told reporters that rescuers had managed to reach the area where the miners' bodies were trapped through tunnel number two. His deputy, Hamidreza Montazeri, told the ILNA news agency that the identities of the victims were still unknown.
Earlier, Ismail Najjar, head of the Crisis Management Organization, had said that 35 workers were trapped in the tunnel following the yurt accident. However, Mr. Montazeri told ILNA that “the search operation has not ended” and that the search “for possible bodies is still ongoing.”
The number of bodies found or moved out of the mine was announced as 22 as of Monday morning.
The Yurt mine accident in Azadshahr, Golestan Province, occurred on May 4 following an explosion. Government officials say an investigation into the cause or causes of the accident is underway.
On Sunday, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, who had visited the site, was met with protests and chants from a number of protesters. Mr. Rouhani left the site amid the protests.
At the same time, the Iranian President said in a meeting with the families of the victims, "The person responsible for the accident and anyone who was at fault must be identified and dealt with in accordance with that fault. There are no exceptions in this regard, and this is an issue 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, and its annual extraction capacity is one hundred thousand tons.
Source: Radio Farda
