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ULYANOVSKAYA MINE, Russia - Rescuers on Tuesday found one survivor and hunted for four others still missing in a Siberian coal mine, after a gas explosion killed at least 106 in Russia's worst mining disaster for over a decade.
Smoke, pockets of gas and collapsed roofs were hampering
rescue efforts in the warren of shafts nearly 300m underground at the Ulyanovskaya mine in the region of Kemerovo, officials said.
"Yes, one survivor came out today," Russia's Emergencies Minister Sergei Shoigu told Channel One television. Shoigu, who is overseeing the rescue operation, did not give any details about the survivor's condition.
Earlier, a spokeswoman for the Emergencies Ministry said 106 people had been confirmed as dead and the fate of four people remained unclear.
Ninety-three people have been brought safely to the surface.
Guards barred most journalists from entering the mine complex, which is surrounded by birch forests and soot-blackened snow. Only reporters from state-controlled television channels were allowed in.
Vans drove out periodically through the gates, carrying away the bodies of the dead.
Emergency Ministry officials arranged for grieving relatives to wait at a nearby hotel, where psychologists were providing assistance. Local authorities declared three days of mourning, cancelling entertainment events and flying flags at half mast.
Amongst the dead was a visiting Briton, who was carrying out a coal reserves audit underground when a methane gas explosion ripped through the mine, Itar-Tass news agency reported.
British mining consultancy IMC confirmed that one of its employees, Ian Robertson, was in the mine at the time of the blast but could not comment on what had happened to him.
Accidents in Russia's mines are frequent but the Ulyanovskaya complex was only opened in 2002 and inaugurated on the 50th birthday of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Authorities believed a failure to follow safety rules was the most likely cause of the disaster.
"The main theory being considered by the prosecutor's office is violations of mining work rules," Kemerovo region prosecutor Alexei Bugayets told Interfax news agency.
Putin dispatched Emergency Minister Sergei Shoigu to oversee the rescue operation at the mine and rescuers were drafted in from neighbouring areas to help.
About 3500km east of Moscow, the mine is at the heart of Siberia's Kuznetsk basin, or Kuzbass, which holds some of the biggest coal reserves in the world.
Television pictures showed rescuers with coal darkened faces emerging from the mine and scores of ambulances were on standby to treat those brought to the surface.
An estimated 203 people were working at the mine when the blast occurred. Officials said some miners had managed to reach the surface alive.
Prime Minister Mikhail Fradkov called for tougher safety rules at mines. The Kommersant daily said it was Russia's worst mining accident since the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991.
Russian miners say safety rules are frequently broken in coal mines, some of which date from Josef Stalin's mass industrialisation drive or even earlier.
The Ulyanovskaya mine belongs to the Yuzhkuzbassugol company, Russia's largest underground coal mining firm, which is 50 percent owned by the country's second-biggest steelmaker Evraz. It supplies coal to fuel Evraz steel plants.
Yuzhkuzbassugol's management owns the other 50 percent and has operational control of the company.
Russia's wealthiest man, London-based oligarch Roman Abramovich, controls 41 percent of Evraz.
The accident did not affect Evraz shares during trade on the London Stock Exchange on Monday.
- REUTERS