Five killed in Ukraine mine blast

Five salvage workers looking for the bodies of miners killed in Ukraine’s worst mine explosion since the Soviet collapse were killed in a new explosion, officials said today.

The blast late yesterday was the third at the massive Zasyadko mine in the eastern city of Donetsk, where 101 miners died on November 18.

Marina Nikitina, a local officer with the federal industrial safety agency, said five people were killed and 66 injured in the latest incident.

On Saturday, 44 people were injured in an explosion in the same section of the mine.

Yesterday’s blast occurred while emergency workers were cleaning up the site of the November 18 blast at a depth of more than 1,000m. Ten bodies from the original blast have yet to be recovered.

Ukraine’s mines are regarded as some of the world’s most dangerous, partly because many are in poor repair. In addition, the country’s mines typically are more than 3,000ft deep – twice the depth of most European coal beds. High levels of methane accumulate at such depths.