Death toll rises to at least 34 after blast at Pakistan coal mine complex

An explosion that buried parts of a mining complex has killed at least 34 miners in Pakistan's Balochistan province, Pakistani officials said on Friday.

A rescue operation is still underway to find and recover the remaining two trapped miners, said Muhammad Fahad, director of operations for the Provincial Disaster Management Authority.

Shoaib Nosherwani, Balochistan's minister for mines and mineral development, earlier told Reuters that 36 people were in the collapsed part of the complex at the time of the explosion.

Rescue efforts were under way at a depth of 4,000 feet (1,219 meters), said Muhammad Atif, the chief inspector of mines in the province.

Abdul Ghani Baloch, a senior government mining official in the region, said: "Two mines close to each other were damaged in a powerful methane gas explosion."

The explosion occurred in Sorange, a remote area near the provincial capital Quetta.