Rescuers found one survivor Tuesday and hunted for four still
missing in a Siberian coal mine, after 106 workers died in Russia's
worst mining disaster since the collapse of the Soviet Union.
Smoke, pockets of gas and collapsed roofs were hampering rescue
efforts in the warren of shafts nearly 300 meters underground at
the wrecked Ulyanovskaya mine in the Kemerovo region, officials
said.
As distraught relatives gathered outside a morgue in a nearby
city to identify their dead, Emergencies Minister Sergei Shoigu
told Russian television that one man had been rescued from the pit
alive a day after a gas explosion devastated it.
Asked about the chances of the four still missing, he said: "We
hope. We hope." He gave no details about the survivor.
Guards barred most journalists from getting within sight of the
mine complex, which is surrounded by birch forests and
soot-blackened snow.
President Vladimir Putin began a meeting with officials in
Moscow by ordering a minute's silence for the dead miners - as well
as 62 people killed overnight in a fire at an old people's home and
six who died in a weekend plane crash.
"You have to do your best to investigate the reasons at the
highest level... and to draw corresponding conclusions," Putin told
Prime Minister Mikhail Fradkov in his first public comments on the
spate of fatal accidents.
Putin said in a telegram to the Kemerovo regional governor that
"this terrible tragedy at the Ulyanovskaya pit echoes in the hearts
of Russians with pain".
Authorities opened an investigation into the causes of the
disaster. "Initial indications are that methane or coal dust
exploded, as a result of which the roof collapsed," The Federal
Prosecutor-General's office said in a statement.
Authorities believed a failure to follow safety rules was the
most likely cause of the disaster, the worst mining tragedy since
the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.
Earlier, a spokeswoman for the Emergencies Ministry said 106
people were confirmed dead and the fate of four others remained
unclear. Ninety-three people were brought safely to the
surface.
(China Daily via agencies March 21, 2007)
