MOSCOW, January 10th, 2004 (RIA Novosti correspondent) - A methane explosion occurred at the Sibirskaya mine in Anzhero-Sudzhensk, the Kemerovo region (West Siberia's south, where the Kuznetsk coal basin is situated), at 8.30 Moscow time today. Sixty-seven miners have been evacuated already, said a spokesman for the Russian emergencies ministry.
In all, there were 96 people in the mine at the moment of the blast. Now rescuers are trying to save the 28 people still at the coalface.
According to the spokesman, one person was killed in the explosion. Another ten received burns of various degrees and are now in hospital.
Mine rescuers and emergencies doctors are working at the site of the accident, the source said.
