One survivor, 9 bodies pulled out of coalmine

QUETTA: Pakistani authorities said Tuesday they had rescued one miner who survived two days trapped in a coalmine after a fire that killed nine other workers in Degari near Quetta.

An electrical short circuit sparked the blaze on Sunday at the mine. Eleven miners were working around 4,000 feet underground at the time. One was quickly saved but poisonous carbon monoxide gas hampered rescue efforts.

Officials confirmed on Tuesday that just one of the remaining ten had been discovered alive. "We have found nine dead bodies," Abdullah Shahwani, a top provincial official for the industry, said. The surviving miner was critically injured, he said. Provincial government spokesman Liaquat Shahwani confirmed the toll.