Nine killed in Siberian mine blast
An explosion swept through a coal mine in Siberia today, killing nine workers.
Interfax news agency said the blast happened at the Yesaulskaya mine in the Kemerovo region, about 1,850 miles east of Moscow.
Thirty miners were in the shaft when the explosion occurred, ITAR-Tass news agency quoted deputy regional governor Anatoly Dyukin as saying. Seventeen miners were unaccounted for.
Olga Raskova of the Kemerovo regional press service said four miners were in hospital but their lives were not in danger.
The blast was caused by a methane build-up, according to a preliminary investigation.
The press service said that smoke had been registered in the shaft yesterday and that coal extraction had been stopped. The workers in the shaft at the time of the blast were trying to erect bulkheads to cut off the source of the smoke, the press service said.
Accidents are common in the Russian coal industry, which is plagued by dilapidated mines, ageing equipment and safety breaches.
In the deadliest disaster last year, a methane blast killed 47 miners in the Kuzbass in April.
