21 killed, four missing in Siberian coal blast

MOSCOW, RUSSIA - An explosion swept through a mine in the coal-rich Kuzbass region of Siberia February 10, killing at least 21 workers and leaving four missing in the latest accident to occur in an industry plagued by dilapidated mines, aging equipment and safety violations.

The blast occurred at the 20-year-old Yesaulskaya mine in the Kemerovo region, about 3,000 kilometres east of Moscow, as mine workers were trying to prevent a fire from spreading. Four miners were hospitalized with non-life-threatening injuries, said Olga Raskova of the Kemerovo regional government press service. A fifth was in serious condition.

Thirty miners were in the shaft when the explosion occurred, the press service said.

Twenty-one were confirmed dead and four were unaccounted for, said Sergei Vlasov, a spokesman for the Emergency Situations Ministry in Moscow.

Regional Gov. Aman Tuleyev said occasional blasts could still be heard in the shaft, hampering rescue efforts.

Miner Andrei Pshenichnikov, his face covered with cuts, described the trauma from his hospital bed in footage broadcast on NTV television.

"A shockwave came and it hurled us all, thrown into somersaults like in a circus. Then I walked along the track, I don't remember how long. I met security guards and they helped me."

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 earlier in the week and that coal extraction had been stopped. The workers in the shaft at the time of the blast were trying to erect bulkheads to isolate the fire sending out the smoke, the press service said.