Tehran, Sep 22 (IANS): At least 30 people have died and 17 others injured in an explosion at a coal mine in the eastern Iranian province of South Khorasan, media reported on Sunday.

The blast occurred at the mine belonging to the Madanjoo Company in Tabas County at about 9 p.m. local time on Saturday due to a rise in the amount of methane gas in one of the tunnels, Iranian media report quoted Mohammad-Ali Akhoundi, director general of the provincial crisis management headquarters, as saying in an address to reporters on Sunday morning.

He said that at the time of the explosion, 69 miners were working at the scene.

Iran's new reformist President Masud Pezeshkian, preparing to travel to New York for the United Nations General Assembly, said he ordered all efforts be made to rescue those trapped and aid their families. He also said an investigation into the incident had begun.

The accident was caused by a methane gas explosion in the B and C blocks of the mine., which is run by the Madanjoo company, state media later reported.

"Seventy-six per cent of the country's coal is provided from this region and around eight to 10 big companies are working in the region, including the Madanjoo company," the governor of South Khorasan Province, Ali Akbar Rahimi, told state TV on September 22.

Earlier, state TV broadcast footage of ambulances and helicopters arriving at the scene of the incident to transport the injured to hospitals.

Iran's Red Crescent said search-and-rescue operations were under way in the mine.

"Gas accumulation in the mine" has made the search operations difficult, local prosecutor Ali Nesaei was quoted by IRNA as saying.

Earlier on Sunday, Akhoundi said 40 equipped teams were providing rescue services, putting the number of the rescuers at 100. Two ambulance buses and 13 ambulances were present.

Iranian Interior Minister Eskandar Momeni, in a phone call with South Khorasan's Governor Javad Ghenaat, ordered him to mobilise all provincial facilities and resources to accelerate rescue and relief operations, Xinhua news agency reported quoting the official news agency IRNA.

Elias Hazrati, head of the Iranian government's Information Council, said President Masoud Pezeshkian has issued a special directive to handle the incident, ordering relevant ministers to take necessary measures.

This is not the first disaster to strike Iran's mining industry.

Last year, an explosion at a coal mine in the northern city of Damghan killed six people, also likely the result of methane, according to local media.

In May 2021, two miners died in a collapse at the same site, local media reported at the time.

A blast in 2017 killed 43 miners in Azad Shahr city in northern Iran, triggering a wave of anger directed at the authorities.