This handout photograph taken on March 20, 2024 and released by Pakistan's Mines and Minerals Development Department Balochistan shows miners gathered outside a collapsed mine as rescue personnel conduct a search operation for trapped workers after a gas explosion rocked the private coal pit in the mining region of Khost at Harnai district, Balochistan province. (PHOTO/ MINES AND MINERALS DEVELOPMENT DEPARTMENT BALOCHISTAN / AFP)

QUETTA - Twelve miners were killed and eight rescued after an explosion in a coal mine in south-western Pakistan, officials said on Wednesday.

"The rescue operation has been just completed," said Balochistan province's chief inspector of mines, Abdul Ghani Baloch, on Wednesday morning. He said that 20 miners had been inside the mine when a methane gas explosion took place overnight.

Mine workers have complained that a lack of safety gear and poor working conditions are the key causes of frequent accidents, labour union officials have said in the past

He added that rescue teams recovered 12 bodies while the survivors had been taken to hospital.

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Coal deposits are found in the western areas of Pakistan that sit near the Afghan border and mine accidents are common, mainly due to gas build-ups.

Mine workers have complained that a lack of safety gear and poor working conditions are the key causes of frequent accidents, labour union officials have said in the past.