Grieving families and colleagues have attended a collective funeral for the six miners who died on Monday in Spain’s worst mining accident for 18 years.

The six, all said to have been aged between 35 and 45 years, died from asphyxiation as the result of a methane gas leak. Five workmates survived.

Hundreds turned out for the funeral. Expressions of sympathy have been sent to the north west region from all over the country.

Some 400 miners work at the Emilio del Valle mine. The victims were about 640 metres below ground when it is thought they may have accidentally breached a pocket of lethal methane gas that had accumulated in one area. Survivors said the men collapsed before having time to put on breathing apparatus.