One dead, 26 injured in Ukraine coal mine blast

A methane gas explosion at a mine in eastern Ukraine injured 26 people and killed one yesterday, less than a week after two accidents in the same area claimed the lives of 37 miners.

The blast occurred the Lugansk region’s Krasnokutska mine at 11.40 a.m. local time (0840 GMT) at a depth of 155 metres while 224 miners were working, of whom 37 were in the impact zone.

“According to preliminary information, 26 miners have been wounded, five of whom sustained serious injuries,” the emergency situations ministry said in a statement.

Work in the mine was not interrupted.

Thirty-seven miners were killed in the July 29 explosions deep in the Sukhodolskaya-Vostochnaya coal mine, also in Lugansk region, and the Bazhanova mine in the neighbouring Donetsk region, in Ukraine’s worst mining accidents since 2007.