Iran believes remaining workers in mine blast are dead, raising toll to 49

Rescue workers, police officers and workers gather around the site of a coal mine where a methane leak sparked an explosion on Saturday (Iranian Red Crescent Society via AP)

Iran has said it believes the remaining workers trapped by an explosion at a coal mine in the country’s east have died, bringing the death toll in one of its worst industrial disasters to at least 49.

A provincial emergency official, Mohammad Ali Akhoundi, gave the death toll in a report carried by Iranian state television from the mine in Tabas.