A coal mine explosion in eastern Ukraine killed at least 65
miners and left 35 missing on Sunday, a Ukrainian official
said.
A relative of a mine
methane blast's victim cries at the Zasyadka mine in Donetsk,
Ukraine, Sunday, Nov. 18, 2007.
"The death toll has climbed to 65 and the fate of 35 others is
still unknown," said Ihor Krol, chief spokesman of the Emergency
Situations Ministry.
The methane explosion occurred at the Zasyadka mine in the
Donetsk region at a depth of more than 1,000 meters at 3:11 AM
local time (0111 GMT), the Emergency Situations Ministry said. The
Donetsk region is about 640 km southeast of the capital, Kiev.
The Emergency Situations Ministry said earlier on its Web site
that 457 miners were working underground when the blast
occurred.
According to the Interfax-Ukraine news agency, Ukraine's Prime
Minister Viktor Yanukovych has rushed to the scene and President
Victor Yushchenko would fly to Donetsk on Monday.
Sunday's blast was the second mine accident to hit the Donetsk
region in two days. On Saturday a miner was killed by falling rocks
in another coal mine in the region.
The Zasyadko mine, one of Ukraine's largest, produces up to
10,000 tons of coal every day. But several deadly accidents took
place in the coal mine.
A gas leak at the Zasyadko mine in September 2006 killed 13
miners. In 1999 an explosion there claimed 50 lives, while in
2001another blast claimed 55 lives.
Ukraine's most deadly mine accident was in 2000, when 80 miners
were killed in an explosion at a colliery in the eastern region of
Luhansk.
(Xinhua News Agency November 19, 2007)
