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MOSCOW - About 65 workers were trapped underground at a Siberian coal mine today after a methane gas explosion ripped through the pit, emergency services said.
At the time of the blast at the Yubileynaya mine in Siberia's Kemerovo region, 217 people were underground. A spokeswoman for Russia's Emergencies Ministry said 152 had been brought safely to the surface, leaving 65 underground.
"The latest information is that 152 people have been brought to the surface. Four are injured: three have burns, one has other injuries," said the spokeswoman.
"The blast happened at 0340 GMT. Initial information is that 28 people were at the epicentre of the blast but that information is being clarified at the moment."
The mine is in the Kemerovo region in western Siberia, near to the Ulyanovskaya mine where 110 miners were killed in a methane blast in March this year.
"Rescue services have gone to the scene of the accident. A regional emergency headquarters has been set up. The governor has gone to the scene," a spokesman for the regional administration told Reuters.
"According to the (mining) company's information, there were 194 workers and 23 engineering inspectors underground (at the time of the explosion)," he said.
Both the Yubileynaya and Ulyanovskaya mines are owned by Yuzhkuzbassugol, a company that is owned 50 per cent by its management, which has operational control, and 50 per cent by Evraz Group, Russia's top steelmaker by domestic volume.
- REUTERS
