A third explosion occurred at the Pike River Coal mine near New Zealand South Island West Bank town of Greymouth on Friday afternoon. The explosion happened at 03:39 p.m. on Friday, just five minutes before a scheduled one-minute silence held at the mine. That was to be held at precisely the time one week ago the first explosion struck.

Pike River Coal's chairman John Dow confirmed the incident. He told a news conference in Greymouth the explosion lasted 20 seconds and was smaller than both the initial explosion and the one on Wednesday that extinguished all hope of finding 29 mine workers trapped underground alive. He also said the explosion was discovered by CCTV.