Twelve injured in coal mine explosion in Bulgaria

SOFIA, March 5 (Reuters) Twelve miners were injured in an explosion at a Bulgarian coal mine today, a civil defence official said.

One man was in a serious condition and the others suffered various injuries. They were rushed to hospital after what was most likely a methane gas blast in a privately held mine near the southwestern town of Simitli.

All 33 miners who were underground managed to leave the mine, the official said.

''No one is trapped inside,'' a civil defence official at the site told Reuters.

REUTERS PDM PM1806