QUETTA: Sixteen miners were killed and nine others were wounded Saturday when a coal mine collapsed due to a gas explosion in southwestern Pakistan, officials said.

The accident occurred in Marwaarh area, 45 kilometres (28 miles) east of Quetta, the capital of oil and gas-rich Balochistan province bordering Iran and Afghanistan.

"The roof caved in following an explosion triggered by the accumulation of methane gas, killing 16 miners and wounding nine others, two of them seriously", Jawaid Shahwani, the top government official in Quetta, told AFP.