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Ecuador mine blast victims sought One man killed in Ecuador blast
(about 4 hours later)
Rescuers in Ecuador have been trying to find any survivors after a gold mine blast killed at least two people. An explosion at a gold mine in Ecuador on Monday killed one man, security officials and rescue services now say.
Hours later, the situation was still confused. There were some reports that between 30 and 60 miners were trapped, but others said no-one was missing. The blast, which took place in the dynamite store of the mine in Ponce Enriquez, Azuay province, also injured at least 35 others.
The blast late on Sunday at a private mine in southern Ecuador injured about 40 miners, many of them Peruvian. Reports of what happened remained confused long after the event - some suggesting up to seven people had died and scores were trapped underground.
The cause is unclear, with officials saying a short circuit may have set off the blast in the mine's dynamite store. The explosion was blamed on a mistake by the man, 25, who was killed.
A firefighter told AP news agency that the blast in the village of Ponce Enriquez, in Azuay province, was so powerful it could be felt in Machala, a 15-minute drive away. Almost half the buildings in the mine were destroyed by the explosion on Monday evening, Col Armando Balcazar told a news conference, according to AP news agency.
The scale of the disaster was unclear, with very different casualty figures announced. He said two of the injured were in a serious but stable condition.
A local firefighter chief, Rodrigo Durazno, told AFP news agency: "We have recovered from the rubble seven bodies, and sent 40 injured people to area hospitals. There are also some 30 people reported missing." Interior Minister Gustavo Larrea initially said 60 miners had been trapped underground, but that proved incorrect.
Interior Minister Gustavo Larrea told Channel 1 TV that about 60 miners were trapped underground. Both army and mining company sources attributed the blast to "human error" on the part of the 25-year-old man who died.
But Jose Pacheco, a spokesman for Sominur, which owns the mine, told another news agency, Reuters, that two men had died and 15 had been injured.
"There are no miners trapped as it has been said," he added.
Reports say some 400 people work at the private Liga de Ora mine, many of them Peruvians.