Mohammad Ali Akhoundi, a regional emergency official, gave the death toll in a report broadcast by Iranian state television from the mine in Tabas.
Conflict in numbers
There were conflicting reports about the number of victims of the coal mine in the Iranian city of Tabas, as media outlets reported that… IranOn Sunday, the number of workers killed exceeded 50 people, and the Iranian Red Crescent returned to say that the number of victims was only 31 workers, amid ambiguity regarding the details of the accident and its background.
The newspaper “Setareh Sobh” embodied this conflict in the sons, and titled its front page by saying: “Tabas mine takes the lives of 52 workers and injures 22 others”, while “Arman Emrooz” said that the number of victims is 31 workers, based on statements by some officials.
How did the disaster happen?
The Setareh Sobh newspaper considered that this humanitarian disaster occurred as a result of “mismanagement” by officials responsible for ensuring the safety of workers in the mine. The Abrar newspaper said that this tragedy is the result of the Iranian governments’ “negligence” in creating a safe environment for working in such harsh conditions, while the Eqtesad Poya newspaper called for holding accountable those responsible for this incident, stressing that the lack of accountability in previous incidents led to this type of negligence and clear failure.
The Farhikhtegan newspaper published a chart and a report on “alarming statistics about the state of mines” in Iran, writing that the safety of 75 percent of them is not guaranteed.
According to this report, during 2021, only 23 percent of Iranian mines had health and safety (HSE) units.
As for the newspaper “Donya-e Eqtesad”, it saw that the problems in the mining sector resulting from the sanctions are the reason for this humanitarian disaster. According to experts in this field, the inability to import modern technology equipment is what led to the occurrence of such a disaster and others.
Mining deterioration
For his part, Mohammad Reza Bahraman, head of the Iranian Mining House, commented on the incident, Coal mine In the city of Tabas, “the safety and health situation of workers in the country’s coal mines has reached its worst.”
“We have repeatedly warned about the low level of safety in the country’s coal mines, which is outside the accepted standards, and this should be a matter of concern,” Bahraman told IRNA on Sunday.
“Since 2017, we have been officially warning through the media about the deterioration of safety standards in the country’s coal mines,” he said.
