Eight Colombian miners dead in methane explosion

BOGOTA, Aug 1 (Reuters) - A methane gas explosion killed eight miners and wounded two on Friday in an illegally operated coal mine in central Colombia, authorities said.

The explosion happened in a mine in Cundinamarca province that the government shut down in 2004, Plinio Bustamante, director of Mining Services at the Colombian Institute of Geology and Mining, told Reuters.

"The mine generated two explosions that resulted in eight miners being killed," said Bustamante.

It was the worst accident of its kind this year in the Andean country, where thousands of impoverished people work in improvised mines subject to landslides, gas explosions and other hazards. (Reporting by Javier Mozzo; writing by Alisha Laventure; editing by Mohammad Zargham)