At least 81 dead in Siberian coal mine blast; more than 30 missing

Mar 20, 2007, 5:59 GMT

Moscow - The bodies of 81 miners had been recovered as of Tuesday morning after a methane-gas explosion at a coal mine in central Siberia, and rescue workers were searching for more than 30 miners still missing, Russian's emergency situations minister said.

Rescue teams were working in the galleries that had been hardest hit by Monday's blast at the Ulyonovsk longwall mine, Sergei Shoigu said.

'We are proceeding carefully,' he said, according to the Interfax news agency.

Of the more than 200 men working underground at the time of the explosion, 93 were pulled alive from the rubble at the mine near the city of Novokuznetsk more than 3,000 kilometres east of Moscow.

According to unofficial information, among the dead was a British banker who was examining the mine's safety measures.

Conditions in the mine for the rescue workers had somewhat improved, an official in the Kemerova regional administration told Interfax.

'The ventilation in the shafts is better,' Yevgeni Rostalnoy said. 'The gas is receding.'

Doctors were looking after the families of the miners, he added, after the worst mining disaster ever to hit modern Russia.

The Ulyanovsk mine is one of the most modern mines in the coal- heavy area of central Siberia known as the Kuzbass, a Soviet-era industrial centre where coal has been mined for more than 150 years.

The mine has been in operation since 2002, produces 3 million tons of coal annually and is part of the business empire of the oil and metals oligarch Roman Abramovich.

More than 200 rescuers were searching for the missing miners. Their work was hindered initially by smoke and coal dust blocking the mine's emergency exits, Emergency Situations Ministry spokeswoman Irina Andrianova said.

A part of the mine had also collapsed, further frustrating efforts, Kemerovo Governor Aman Tuleyev told the Itar-Tass news agency.

A spokesman for Yuzhkuzbassugol, the facility's owner, said the explosion came about after a sudden and inexplicable increase in methane levels.

Tuleyev, however, said the methane leak occurred after part of the mine's rock cover collapsed.

Kemerovo region prosecutors opened an investigation into neglect of safety procedures.

Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Fradkov, speaking from South Africa, said a government commission would investigate the explosion as well.

Fradkov also promised 'tough measures' to prevent similar tragedies in the future, Russian news agencies said.

Many of the region's mines and have reported a number of accidents in recent years. In 2005, 25 people died in a single mine explosion, and 47 perished in a blast in 2004.

In 1997, the final toll of the what had been the worst mine explosion in the region was put at 67 at another mine near Novokuznetsk.