QUETTA: Three coal miners died on Monday after inhaling poisonous gas accumulated in a mine in the Harnai area, some 160 kilometres east from here.

Official sources said the workers were extracting coal from a mine thousands of feet deep when gas filled the space.

After the incident, rescue workers reached the site and retrieved the bodies from the mine. `Three coal miners died after inhaling the poisonous gas,` the chief inspector of the mines directorate said.

The bodies were later handed over to the heirs after medico-legal formalities. All three victims belonged to Pishin district.

It was second such incident in a week. On Friday, four workers were killed in a methane gas blast inside a mine in the Sanjdi area.-Staff Correspondent