BOGOTA, June 24 (Xinhua) -- At least eight miners were killed, and another five missing, following an explosion at a carbon mine in Colombia's central department of Cundinamarca, the National Mining Agency said on Saturday.
The blast occurred Friday afternoon in Pueblo Viejo de Cucunuba, a town 90 kilometers north of the capital Bogota.
"The official report is of 14 people affected by the incident," including "one injured, eight killed and five missing," the agency posted on its Twitter account.
The blast was blamed on a "methane gas explosion."
Initially, authorities reported two deaths late Friday and 11 people missing.
Some 35 rescue workers and seven engineers were working round the clock to locate the others, news network Caracol said on its website.
Coal mining is a major industry in Colombia, which produced a record 90 million tons of the fossil fuel in 2016, said Caracol.
Unfortunately, mining accidents are fairly common, with 28 incidents reported in the first five months of the year, leaving 23 people dead and 33 injured, the news agency said, adding 60 percent of the cases involved coal mines.
