By THOMAS ERDBRINK

TEHRAN, New York Times, MAY 8, 2017 – Angry miners grieving the deaths of dozens of co-workers trapped after an explosion blocked the convoy of President Hassan Rouhani over the weekend, an extraordinary display of public anger two weeks before presidential elections.
Workers from the Zemestan-Yurt coal mine in northern Iran, some of whose faces were still black from their failed attempts to rescue at least 35 miners stuck in several shafts since Wednesday, blocked the car carrying Mr. Rouhani on Sunday. The incident was shown in video clips posted by the semiofficial Fars news agency.

Mr. Rouhani, who is fighting to be re-elected on May 19, remained in the armored car, with bodyguards hanging from all sides protecting him. Dozens of miners and grieving family members surrounded the vehicle, some wearing hard hats, blocking it from moving.

Some miners could be heard swearing, as another, wearing a miner’s helmet and sitting on the roof of the car shouted: “Make way. This is your president.”

Mr. Rouhani faces five opponents in the elections. The main hard-line candidates, Mayor Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf of Tehran and the head of a religious foundation, Ebrahim Raisi, a cleric, accuse him of having ruined the economy and not solving unemployment.

The accident in the mine was the latest in a string of fires and natural disasters. There was even a tower collapse in the center of Tehran.

In a separate, edited video circulated by Fars, the presidential car is seen from another angle. As other cars in the convoy slowly make their way forward, the black armored car is seen surrounded by miners.

Several members of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps are standing at a distance, as one miner starts banging the hood of the car, and kicking it. Seconds later, he can be seen trying to drag down one of the bodyguards hanging from the vehicle. As the presidential vehicle speeds away some miners chase it, throwing stones.

In yet another clip, posted by the Tasnim news agency, Mr. Rouhani can be seen standing among miners. One of them complains that they have not been paid for 14 months. “I don’t even have 10,000 tomans,” or around $2.60, “to take my child to the doctor,” he says.