KEMEROVO, January 27 (Itar-Tass) – During work at mine 7 in the Kemerovo region, where methane had exploded, rescuers found bodies of four miners, the regional branch of EMERCOM reported on Sunday.
“We have found four bodies of the miners, who remained unaccounted,” the report reads. “During Sunday, the bodies will be lifted to the surface.”
Seventy-seven people were working underground when smoke started spreading in the mine at 02:15 Moscow time on January 20. Criminal proceedings were initiated on charges of violation of safety rules at explosion-prone facilities. Sixty-nine miners were evacuated to the surface. Four miners were reportedly dead and another four are missing, the regional branch of the Ministry for Emergency Situations told Itar-Tass. A regional emergency centre has been set up. Later, a rescue operation at the Kuzbass mine No.7 was suspended for fear of an explosion that could be caused by high methane concentration in the mine. Specialists continued extracting gas from the mine.
Psychologists of the local branch of the emergency situations ministry and of the medicine of catastrophes were working on the site and on the telephone hotline. Investigative bodies of the Kemerovo region initiated criminal proceedings on charges of violation of safety rules at explosion-prone facilities in connection with the death of four miners. The Kemerovo region’s Governor Aman Tuleyev ordered to check industrial security at all coal enterprises in the region following the accident at mine 7, press service of the regional administration reported. Families of miners, who died in the accident at mine 7 in the Kemerovo region, will receive three million roubles in aid from local authorities.