At least 11 dead, 66 missing after explosions at Russia’s largest coal mine
May 9th, 2010 - 3:33 pm ICT by BNO NewsKEMEROVO, RUSSIA (BNO NEWS) — An explosion on late Saturday ripped through a coal mine in Kemerovo, Russia while more than 300 people were at work underground, killing at least 11 people and injuring dozens more, according to local media.
The Interfax news agency cited the Ministry of Emergency Situations as saying that the explosion happened before 9 p.m. local time at a mine in the industrial city of Kemerovo, east-northeast of Novosibirsk in Kemerovo Oblast. The coal mine is operated by Raspadskaya and is the country’s largest.
The RIA Novosti news agency reported that a total of 359 miners were working underground when the accident happened, which is believed to have been a methane explosion. More than 200 miners were rescued after the explosion, although 41 of them were reported injured. More than 70 miners are feared to remain been trapped.
Several hours after the initial incident, a second explosion ripped through the mine. Interfax and RIA Novosti reported that 20 members of a rescue team were missing after the blast.
In March 2007, a methane explosion at the Ulyanovskaya longwall coal mine in Kemerovo Oblast killed at least 108 people, making it one of the deadliest Russian mine accident in years.
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