At least 80 Ukrainian miners killed in methane explosion

Eighty coal miners were killed and seven were injured after a methane gas explosion Saturday in eastern Ukraine, the former Soviet republic's worst mine disaster in decades.

Eighty coal miners were killed and seven were injured after a methane gas explosion Saturday in eastern Ukraine, the former Soviet republic's worst mine disaster in decades.

The blast at the Barakova mine occurred shortly after 1 p.m. (1100 GMT) at a depth of 664 meters (2,191 feet) while 277 miners were working in the mine, the Emergency Situations Ministry said.

Nearly 200 miners managed to leave the shaft after the blast, it said.

Vitaly Ageev, senior duty officer at the ministry, said 80 miners were killed and seven were taken alive from the mine and hospitalized. All of the workers in the mine were accounted for.

Thirty-three rescue units were engaged in bringing the bodies to the ground, emergency officials said. The mine is located in Krasnodon, about 850 kilometers (530 miles) east of Ukraine's capital Kiev.

Ukraine's frequent deadly coal mine accidents are often caused by methane, a naturally occurring colorless, odorless and highly explosive gas that seeps out of coal seams and can build up easily in poorly ventilated mine shafts.

In April 1998, a methane explosion at a mine in Donetsk, Ukraine's eastern coal capital, killed 63 coal workers. In May 1999, a methane blast at another mine in Donetsk killed 50 workers.

The number of people killed on Saturday was the highest since before 1980, when 66 miners and two rescuers died at the Gorskaya mine in then-Soviet Ukraine.

The country has the world's highest coal industry death rate, blamed largely on outdated and badly functioning equipment and miners' neglect of safety rules. At least 274 miners were killed last year, down from about 360 in 1998, and the death figure this year stood at 45 before the latest accident.

Ukraine's mine elevators are made of rickety wooden planks and rusty wheels, and struggle to haul workers up and down several times a day. A third of the ropes hauling the elevators are well beyond their service time.

Much of eastern Ukraine, once proud of its coal riches, has turned into a wasteland of poverty and environmental destruction. Heaps of coal waste dot the landscape among crumbling mine administration buildings.

Most of Ukraine's more than 400,000 coal workers also do not receive their wages on time, which prompts sporadic strikes.

Last year, 31 miners at Barakova stayed underground in protest for more than two weeks, and some cut their arms and threatened to commit suicide before mine executives agreed to pay their back wages. Barakova miners were also involved in numerous other protests in recent years.

Saturday's disaster prompted President Leonid Kuchma to postpone a visit to Poland, and Prime Minister Viktor Yushchenko postponed his visit to the United States, which was scheduled for March 14-16. The premier also decided to head a government investigative team set up to look into the accident, his spokeswoman said.

Fuel Minister Serhiy Tulub, Labor Minister Ivan Sakhan and other officials arrived late Saturday in Krasnodon.