7 killed in gas leak at Iran coal mine, President orders probe

A gas leak at a coal mine in northern Iran killed seven workers, three of whom were Afghanis, state media said Tuesday.

President Masoud Pezeshkian ordered a probe into the incident, which occurred Monday afternoon near the city of Damghan, some 270 kilometres (170 miles) northwest of the capital, Tehran, according to a report by the official IRNA news agency.

Safety measures may have been disregarded, the report said. Industrial accidents reportedly kill some 700 workers in Iran each year.

Last week, an iron ore mine collapsed, killing one worker in the country’s northwest. In September, an explosion in a coal mine in eastern Iran killed dozens of workers.