April 15 (Reuters) - Coal miner Walter Energy Inc said it would idle its mines in British Columbia and temporarily lay off about 695 jobs.

“Given the current met coal pricing environment, our best course of action at this time is to idle these operations until we can achieve reasonable value from these reserves.” Chief Executive Walter Scheller III said in a statement.

The company said it expects to incur severance charges of about $7 million in the second quarter of 2014 in connection with the idling of the mines. (Reporting by Anannya Pramanick in Bangalore; Editing by Joyjeet Das)