Five people died and another four were seriously injured following an explosion on Monday at a coal mine in Spain's northern region of Asturias, officials said.

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Two other workers at the Cerredo mine in Degana, some 450 kilometres (280 miles) northwest of Madrid, were unharmed in the accident, local emergency services said.

Officials had earlier said two people were missing but they now believe everyone has been accounted for.

While the cause of the explosion has not been confirmed, emergency services said they were alerted to an "incident" involving "a problem with a machine".

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Local media said the machine had exploded.

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The injured were taken to hospitals in nearby cities, two of them by helicopter. They had suffered burns and, in one case, a head injury.

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Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez sent his "sincere condolences" to the families of the victims and wished a "speedy recovery" to the injured, in a message posted on X.

The head of the regional government of Asturias, Adrian Barbon, declared two days of mourning "as a sign of respect for the deceased".

Mining has for centuries been a major industry in Asturias, a densely forested mountainous region.

In 1995, 14 people died following an explosion at a mine in Asturias near the town of Mieres.

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