34 miners trapped after Bosnia quake

Thirty-four miners remained trapped inside a Bosnian coal mine on Friday after an earthquake triggered a gas explosion and caved in two tunnels.

"Of 56 miners that were in the mine, 22 made it back to the surface and 34 are still in the affected zone," verbally expressed Esad Civic, manager at the Raspotocje mine in Zenica.

"We are communicating with them. They are doing well and have enough clean air to wait for the advent of rescue teams."

He verbally expressed two tunnels had collapsed. Earlier reports verbally expressed only eight people were trapped.

The miners are in a tunnel that was impervious to the gas explosion, around 600 metres underground, according to coalescence bellwether Mehmed Oruc.

Two miners were injured in the blast and have been taken to hospital in the town of Zenica.

A 3.5-magnitude quake hit at 1430 GMT 53 kilometres northwest of the capital Sarajevo, national BHRT television reported.

"The rescuers are deploying superhuman efforts to preserve their comrades. We have just verbalized with them. They substantiated they are en masse and doing well," verbally expressed Nermin Niksic, regional prime minister.