All news

Two minors injured in explosion at mine remain in moderate severity conditions

YEKATERINBURG, January 17. /TASS/. The conditions of two minors who got injured in an explosion at the Yuzhnaya mine (the city of Kushva, the Sverdlovsk region, the Urals) are of moderate severity, press secretary of the local healthcare ministry Konstantin Shestakov told TASS on Saturday.

“A helicopter of catastrophe medicine will be ready to take off from Yekaterinburg if any of the patients require placing in hospitals of the regional centre,” he said.

The explosion occurred at 6:45 local time (4:45 Moscow time) at the Yuzhnaya iron ore mine. The police received information at 8:53 local time (6:53 Moscow time), a regional police spokesman Valery Gorelykh said. According to preliminary information a fire began at the depth of 440 metres, and later on an explosion occurred there. The local emergency ministry says at first in the mine was a detonation, which was followed with a fire. Presently the fire is extinguished. All the works have been stopped there.

According to preliminary information, one person has died.

Spokesman of the local police Valery Gorelykh said 89 miners had been working in the mine, and 86 of them were evacuated. “Five people were injured, two of them were taken to hospital. The information about the dead minor is confirmed. Two other persons have not been found yet,” he added.

The Investigative Committee has opened a criminal case following the explosion.