At least 16 miners have been killed in a cave-in triggered by a gas explosion at a coal mine in western Pakistan, officials said.

Nine others were injured in the incident in Marwaarh, east of the city of Quetta in Balochistan, writes bbc.com

Teams have been sent in to try to recover the bodies of the victims, officials added.

Balochistan province is rich in minerals but its mines have a poor safety record.

"The roof caved in following an explosion triggered by the accumulation of methane gas, killing 16 miners and wounding nine others, two of them seriously," government official Jawaid Shahwani told AFP news agency from Quetta.

"We are trying our best to recover bodies but it will take time as most of the bodies are buried very deep," he added.

Most of the miners came from the same village in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa's Shangla district, officials told Pakistan's Dawn newspaper.

A gas explosion at a Balochistan mine in 2011 killed more than 40 people.