Dozens die in Ukraine mine blast

An injured miner talks to medical staff at the scene

DONESTSK, Ukraine -- A gas explosion killed at least 27 miners on Sunday morning in Ukraine's mining belt, Interfax news agency reported.

The blast at the Zasiadko mine in the coal mining Donetsk region was the worst coal industry accident this year in Ukraine. The cause was not immediately known.

The Ukrainian government issued a revised death toll of 27, correcting an earlier report of 36 miners, Interfax said. Rescue officials are said to be searching for 18 other missing workers.

The news agency said about 970 workers were in the mine and more than 250 near the area at the time of the accident.

Twenty-eight miners were taken to the hospital after the accident, according to the Ukrainian Emergencies Ministry.

Sunday's blast was the second major accident at the mine in three years. In 1999, 50 miners were killed in a similar explosion.

More than 140 miners have been killed because of outdated equipment and safety hazards in Ukraine's mines this year, Interfax said.

An estimated 75 percent of the countries mines are considered to be highly prone to methane blasts.

The mine was the scene of a previous explosion involving methane gas in May 1999 which killed 50 miners and left 40 other workers injured.

One miner who escaped the latest accident unharmed described seeing "piles of bodies" while making his way to the surface, the Associated Press reported.

Police ringed the mine and barred reporters from approaching.

President Leonid Kuchma, on a visit to the southern Odessa region, ordered that a government commission be formed to look into the causes of the accident, his spokesman, Oleksandr Martynenko, told AP.

Deputy Prime Minister Volodymyr Semynozhenko pledged to help the families of the dead and wounded and lamented the deteriorated state of Ukraine's coal industry, the Interfax news agency reported.

"This is a tragedy. We understand once again that that we must re-equip our coal industry both techically and technologically to bring it to a proper level. It is one of the state's priorities," Semynozhenko said.

Ukraine, once the pride of the Soviet Union for its huge coal mining industry, has more than 200 people working though mostly unprofitable mines which failed to recover from the Soviet collapse in 1991.

The government of independent Ukraine subsequently slashed its subsidies to the coal industry. Since then the death rate has risen, and the country's mines are widely regarded today as among the world's most dangerous.

Last year, 318 coal workers died underground, including 81 killed in a single explosion in March 2000.

In May this year a methane gas blast ripped through a shaft of the Kirov mine near the town of Makyivka killing 10 miners.