11 Killed in Siberian Mine Collapse

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Wednesday, June 18, 2003

11 Killed in Siberian Mine Collapse

An explosion collapsed the ceiling in one of central Siberia's oldest coal mines, killing 11 miners and trapping four others, officials said Tuesday.

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An explosion collapsed the ceiling in one of central Siberia's oldest coal mines, killing 11 miners and trapping four others, officials said Tuesday.

Three other miners crawled out after the blast, possibly touched off by methane gas, rocked the Ziminka mine Monday in the town of Prokopyevsk, 1,850 miles east of Moscow, emergency officials said.

Two other miners were rescued and hospitalized, said Marina Ryklina, the spokeswoman for the Emergency Situations Ministry. One miner was unaccounted for, Russian television stations reported.

Intense rescue efforts went into a second night for the four trapped miners, as relatives gathered near the mine shaft awaiting news, the Russian media reported.

Anatoly Dyupin, the region's top fuel and energy sector official, said rescuers were drilling a horizontal corridor to reach the trapped miners, and were discussing the possibility of drilling vertically as well, the Interfax news agency said.

Dyupin said the miners were in a 120 square-yard chamber and had sufficient air. Rescuers were able to communicate with the miners, ITAR-Tass said.

The Ziminka mine has been in operation since 1934 and is one of the oldest in the Kemerovo coal basin, Russian media said.

Accidents are common in the coal industry. As of May, 33 miners had been killed on the job in Russia this year, according to the Independent Coal Miners' Union. It said 93 miners were killed in 2001 and 68 last year.

Source: Agencies

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