DONETSK: Two miners were killed and 10 reported missing Monday in a coal mining accident in eastern Ukraine, a government official said, as relatives kept a tearful vigil at the mine.
"Two bodies were found," a spokesman for the ministry, Igor Krol of the country's emergency situations ministry told media.
Out of 51 miners working in the mine at the time of the accident, 38 had able to escape to the surface, he said.
"One injured person was brought back to the surface by rescue workers and the fate of 10 miners remains unknown," Marina Nikitina, a spokeswoman for the State Committee on Workers' Safety, said earlier.
She indicated there seemed to have been an eruption of methane gas three times above the accepted safety norm.
Some of the other escapees had been hospitalised and all work at the mine had been suspended, she added.
Earlier reports had spoken of 53 miners and 12 missing, and rescue workers at the entrance to the mine told media they had found a third body but the authorities have not yet confirmed this.
"Work is underway to ventilate the shafts and reduce the presence of methane," the mine's director Valeri Miminochvili told reporters.
"I hope we will have managed to clear the wreckage and ventilate the mine in 24 to 36 hours," he added.
The explosion happened early Monday at the Skochinsky mine in Donetsk, a city in eastern Ukraine, after a discharge of gas 1,300 metres (4,265 feet) underground, according to Nikitina.
Work using explosives had been underway in the mine's shafts just hours before the disaster, Interfax news agency reported.
"Two bodies were found," a spokesman for the ministry, Igor Krol of the country's emergency situations ministry told media.
Out of 51 miners working in the mine at the time of the accident, 38 had able to escape to the surface, he said.
"One injured person was brought back to the surface by rescue workers and the fate of 10 miners remains unknown," Marina Nikitina, a spokeswoman for the State Committee on Workers' Safety, said earlier.
She indicated there seemed to have been an eruption of methane gas three times above the accepted safety norm.
Some of the other escapees had been hospitalised and all work at the mine had been suspended, she added.
Earlier reports had spoken of 53 miners and 12 missing, and rescue workers at the entrance to the mine told media they had found a third body but the authorities have not yet confirmed this.
"Work is underway to ventilate the shafts and reduce the presence of methane," the mine's director Valeri Miminochvili told reporters.
"I hope we will have managed to clear the wreckage and ventilate the mine in 24 to 36 hours," he added.
The explosion happened early Monday at the Skochinsky mine in Donetsk, a city in eastern Ukraine, after a discharge of gas 1,300 metres (4,265 feet) underground, according to Nikitina.
Work using explosives had been underway in the mine's shafts just hours before the disaster, Interfax news agency reported.
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