Rescuers have little chance of finding alive 12 miners missing after a gas explosion at a Ukrainian colliery, officials said today.
Twenty-four men were brought to the surface on yesterday - more than 24 hours after the explosion shattered installations and blocked shafts at the Karl Marx pit in the Donbass coalfield. One man was found dead and four were seriously hurt with burns.
A government official said nine of the men were on their way to the surface in an elevator when the blast hit them full force at a depth of 200 metres, sending the cage cascading back down the shaft.
The other three, he said, had been about 1,000 metres below ground, where the explosion occurred after levels of methane had shot up beyond dangerous levels. All of them were threatened by rising water which teams were unable to pump out of the mine.
Gas explosions are a frequent occurrence in Ukraine's outdated, unprofitable mines. Like many pits, the Karl Marx mine in Yenakiyevo, northeast of the regional centre Donetsk, dated from the late 19th century with deposits hard to reach at a depth of 1km or more.
President Viktor Yushchenko, long at odds with Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, said ministers had failed the industry, making mining a deadly profession.
The mine was one of 23 where work had been suspended to check on documented safety violations.