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Russian mine blast kills 78

By ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published March 20, 2007

MOSCOW - A methane gas explosion deep in a Siberian coal mine killed at least 78 people and left another 50 trapped Monday in Russia's worst mining disaster in a decade.

Among the missing were company officials and safety experts who had been inspecting a British-made hazard-monitoring system, said Sergei Cheremnov, a spokesman for the regional government. A British man and his interpreter were among those killed, he said.

Up to 200 workers were in the mine when the explosion occurred about 885 feet underground, emergency and regional officials said. At least 75 people were rescued.

Rescuers were checking a large section of the mine for the missing people and were in contact with some of the surviving miners, officials said. It was unclear if the survivors were in immediate danger.

The mine, operated by Yuzhkuzbassugol, is in the city Novokuznetsk, the site of two of Russia's deadliest mine disasters in the past decade. A blast at a mine on the outskirts of the city killed 47 workers in 2004, and a methane explosion killed 67 in 1997.

Russia's mining industry fell into disrepair when government subsidies dried up after the Soviet collapse. At least 30 workers died in Russian mining accidents last year.

In the United States last year, 47 workers died in coal mine accidents. It was the U.S. industry's deadliest year since 1995, when 47 were killed.

Nobody answered repeated calls to Yuzhkuzbassugol. The company is an affiliate of Russian coal and steel company Evraz Group SA.

[Last modified March 20, 2007, 02:15:29]