Siberia Mine Blast Kills Scores and Traps Workers

Mar 20, 07:57 AM

Current Headlines: By Michael Schwirtz

A methane gas explosion Monday in a Siberian coal mine killed at least 75 people and left dozens still trapped underground by early evening, emergency officials said. The explosion, one of the most deadly in recent Russian history, was at the Ulyanovskaya coal mine in Novokuznetsk, Kemerovo, said Valery Korchagin, a spokesman for the local Emergency Affairs Ministry. About 200 people were inside, and rescuers saved at least 83, at least 2 of whom had been injured, he said. Rescue workers were still on the scene late Monday, though it was unclear whether they were in contact with the trapped miners, Korchagin said.

The explosion occurred after the collapse of the mine's main roof and the expulsion of methane through its inner corridors, the official Ria Novosti press agency reported, citing the press service of the regional administration. The mine is one of the newest in Kemerovo, having begun operations in October 2002, according to a statement issued by the Industry Ministry. Governor Amangeldy Tuleyev of Kemerovo told Russian television that it was equipped with state-of-the-art technology. In a sign of the severity of the accident, President Vladimir Putin ordered Sergey Shoigu, the federal emergency situations minister, to fly to the scene, according to Putin's Web site. The Kemerovo region has been the scene of several mine accidents in recent years. In 2004, an explosion in the Taizhina mine killed 47 people. In all of Russia in 2006, there were 21 mine accidents, in which 84 people died, said Olga Glinina, editor of a Russian coal-mining journal, Ugol. Aleksandr Sergeyev, chairman of the Russian Union of Miners, said it was "imperative to suspend underground coal extraction without the necessary clearing of methane from the mine's surface."

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