The fire caused by the accident raged for three hours before firefighters brought the blaze under control
A gas pipeline explosion has killed 10 people and injured more than 20 in the city of Mashhad, northeastern Iran.
The accident on Friday, set off when an earth-moving machine struck a local pipeline, ignited a large blaze in the area, the official ISNA news agency reported on Saturday.
Ali Reza Gharibi, the director of the National Iranian Gas Engineering and Development Company, said the machine lost balance in the mountainous terrain before falling onto the pipeline.
He said workers who suffered burns were rushed to medical facilities by helicopter, and several of the deaths occured in hospital. It took firefighters three hours to bring the blaze under control.
The pipeline brought gas to Mashhad from the nearby Sarakhs refinery.
Gharibi said repairs will be completed within 48 hours and a crisis committee is investigating the incident.
Up to 10 Iranian workers have been killed after a gas pipeline exploded, reports suggest.  Iranian state media have said that the pipeline, which transports gas from the Khangiran refinery in  to the city of  in Iran's northeastern province of , exploded on Saturday, and at least ten workers were transported to hospital, where they died of their injuries.   

The director of the , Alireza Gharibi, said in an interview that "nine to ten people were killed in the Sarakhs pipeline blast." 50 others are reported to have been injured by the explosion, which sparked a large fire that has now been brought under control. After the initial incident, a number of workers with severe burns were taken to hospitals by helicopters. Gharibi stated that the explosion occurred while contractors were constructing a separate pipeline, which is to run nearby to the pipeline involved. The explosion is believed to have occurred when a construction vehicle lost balance and struck the pipeline.

Iranian Deputy Oil Minister  has said that the damaged pipeline will begin transporting gas again in the next couple of days. An investigation has begun into the cause of the disaster. According to the Associated Press, "Iran is the world's fourth-largest oil producer and also sits on the world's second largest natural gas reserves and the country's economy is heavily dependent on oil and gas revenues."


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