Siberian mine explosion kills 10, injures 30

A methane blast in a mineshaft in Siberia has killed at least 10 people and injured 30.

A methane blast in a mineshaft in Siberia has killed at least 10 people and injured 30.

The blast ripped through the mine as a 45-strong repair team was patching up part of the Listvyazhnaya mine, near Russia's border with Mongolia.

Russian news agencies reported that nine brigades of rescue workers controlled by the local governor were searching for survivors.

Accidents are common in Russia's loss-making collieries, many of which date back to dictator Stalin's 1920s industrialisation drive and where safety procedures are largely unchanged since Soviet times.

READ MORE

A blast in the Kemerovo region in April killed 45 miners, and a flooded mineshaft last October trapped 11 miners underground for a week in a mine near Ukraine.