Mohammad Ali Akhundi, the head of the Crisis Management in South Khorassan Province, where the deadly incident happened, said that all other trapped miners are considered dead, but dismissed reports that the rescue operation has stopped.
At least 69 miners were reportedly working in the coal mine in Tabas on Saturday at 22:21 local time (18:51 GMT) when the mine collapsed after a blast.
Officials say the explosion happened due to gas accumulation and attribute the high number of casualties to lack of alarm systems, the import of which is not possible due to the US-led sanctions.
