Coal mine blast kills at least 39 in Russia

MOSCOW -- MOSCOW -- An explosion rocked a Russian coal mine on Saturday, sealing a shaft with rubble and killing at least 39 workers. Rescuers were trying to free about 10 others missing underground.

Eight miners were rescued from the Taizhina mine after the apparent explosion of methane gas, said Valery Korchagin, an emergency department spokesman in the Kemerovo region.

Four of the rescued miners were injured, and two of them were hospitalized with burns, he said. Earlier, he had said five other men had emerged from the mine on their own, but he later retracted that statement.

Rescuers found the 29th body today, close to 24 hours after the blast, and 10 more bodies about six hours later, Korchagin said. About 10 miners remained missing. The bodies were very badly disfigured, making identification very difficult, Korchagin said.

As the missing miners' anxious relatives gathered in the mine's administration building to await news, rescuers using shovels and crowbars tried to dig through from the adjacent Osinnikovskaya mine.

Kemerovo governor Aman Tuleyev, who was overseeing the rescue operation, said on Russian television that the shortest path to the blast site was blocked by what appeared to be impassable rubble. The ITAR-Tass news agency said the rescuers were trying to use a roundabout route that stretched three miles.

Korchagin said the rescuers were not using drills or blasting equipment, but confining themselves to working by hand to move the earth gently out of the way. Working all day Saturday and into the night, they stopped their work occasionally for a minute of silence to allow them to hear any signs of life, ITAR-Tass reported.

The blast occurred at a depth of 1,840 feet, and was believed to have been caused by a methane buildup.