At least 18 Colombian miners die after explosion

BOGOTA, Feb 4 (Reuters) Explosions in a Colombian coal mine killed at least 18 workers in the northeastern province of Norte de Santander, and another 13 were trapped underground and feared dead, an official said today.

''There were 31 men in the mine at the time of the explosions,'' Fernando Rosales, head of the province's civil defense corps, told Reuters.

Rescue and recovery attempts, complicated by deadly gases remaining in the mine shafts, resumed at daybreak today after being suspended the night before. The bodies of 18 miners were recovered from the La Peciosa mine near the town of Sardinata while 13 of their co-workers were unaccounted for.

''It is impossible that those still in the mine are alive due to the high amount of poisonous gas in the mine shafts. It would be a miracle if they are alive,'' Carlos Garcia, head firefighter leading the rescue attempt, told Reuters.

Rescue workers face the danger of more explosions due to combustible gasses, local officials said.

La Preciosa produces coal for domestic consumption.

A similar accident occurred in the town of El Zulia, also in the mountainous province of Norte de Santander, when a coal mine explosion killed 15 people in 2001.

Norte de Santander is an area contested by left-wing rebels and far-right paramilitary militias fighting a decades-old guerrilla war. Both groups, branded terrorists by Washington, fight over control of cocaine smuggling routes from the province into neighboring Venezuela.

Reuters MS DB2032