18 miners killed in Compostela Valley tunnel blast

At least 18 miners were killed and dozens of others were feared dead following an explosion inside a gold mine in the southern Philippines, officials said Thursday.

The Office of Civil Defense in Manila said at least 10 miners have been rescued following the blast late Wednesday.

The mine is operated by JB Management and Mining Corp. in the mountain village of Mount Diwata in Compostela Valley province.

Village chief Franco Tito said one survivor, who refused to be identified, told him that a cache of dynamite ignited inside the tunnel around 10:20 p.m. Wednesday. But the civil defense regional office later said it was a compressor supplying air and ventilation inside the tunnel that had exploded and dismissed the dynamite explanation as rumor.

Tito said mine officials refused to let local villagers and even police and soldiers go inside the mine compound to help with the rescue. He said they counted 18 bodies brought out by vehicles from the compound.

He held out little hope of finding more survivors among about 50 people believed to have been inside the tunnel "because this is an explosion, not a tunnel collapse."

"This is going to be a retrieval, no longer a rescue operation," he told The Associated Press by telephone. Provincial police chief Senior Superintendent Nestor Quinsay said he could only confirm five fatalities and two injured.

"But I have reports of people still trapped inside (the tunnel)," he said.

Quinsay said police and soldiers were later allowed inside the area to help in the rescue effort, which was made more difficult by heavy rains and thick smoke from the explosion.

He said more rescuers from the regional disaster agency plus extra troops and police were on their way to the site and expected to reach the area early Friday.

Accidents are common in the mining areas on Mount Diwalwal, which is believe to sit atop a rich gold deposit, about 930 kilometers southeast of Manila.

No one at JB Management and Mining Corp. was available to comment. — AP