Nine coalminers died on Wednesday when a blast ripped through a mine in south-eastern Iran, an official said. Methane gas had built up in the Babnizou mine near the town of Zarand, 720 km (450 miles) south-east of Tehran, and was ignited by a spark off an underground railway.
"Nine workers were killed in the explosion early on Wednesday," the local government official, who declined to be named, told Reuters by telephone from Zarand. "The death toll is not expected to rise."
Twelve coalminers were killed in two separate mineshaft explosions last year in a northern mine, and both blasts were also blamed on a build-up of gas.
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