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No plans to declare nationwide mourning after accident at Listvyazhnaya mine — Kremlin

Mourning was declared in the region

MOSCOW, November 28. /TASS/. It is not planned to declare nationwide mourning in Russia over those killed in the accident at the Listvyazhnaya coalmine in the Kemerovo region, Russian presidential press secretary Dmitry Peskov said on Sunday.

"No, so far, there are no such plans," he said in an answer to a corresponding question from TASS. "Mourning was declared in the region. Obviously, it is not mourning as such that matters, what matters is that the entire country is really mourning,"

A fire at the Listvyzhnaya mine in Kuzbass’ Belovsky district was reported on Thursday morning. According to the Emergencies Ministry, 285 miners were trapped there the time of the accident. A total of 239 people were evacuated from the mine. According to the latest data, the accident killed 51, including five rescuers, and left 64 injured. Two criminal cases have been opened over breaches of industrial safety requirements and negligence causing the miners’ death. According to Russia’s Deputy Prosecutor General Dmitry Demeshin, the accident could have been caused by a methane gas explosion. The mine’s director, his deputy, the chief of the mine section and two employees of the Russian technological watchdog who had inspected the mise were detained.

November 26 was declared the day of mourning in the Kemerovo region.