One hundred people died in the worst mining accident in Ukraine's post-Soviet history last week, Interfax news agency said Saturday giving what it said was the final toll of the disaster. "We can now officially say that the accident killed 100 miners at the Zasyadko mine," Andri Bondarenko, head of the regional office of the ministry for emergency situations, told AFP.
Eighty-nine bodies have been brought up and 11 are still down in the mine," he added. On Saturday, 38 miners were still in hospital, including one with critical injuries, the state committee for workers' protection said.
The accident on November 18 took place some 1,000 metres (3,300 feet) underground at the Zasyadko pit, one of Ukraine's three biggest mines. Ukraine's coal mines are considered among the most perilous in the world, with many poorly financed and employing outdated Soviet-era equipment. Most of the country's mine disasters are caused by build-ups of methane gas, which can occur suddenly.
Previously, the worst mining disaster in post-Soviet Ukraine had been at the Barakov mine in 2000, when 80 people were killed in a similar gas explosion.
The Zasyadko mine employs some 10,000 people and produces up to 10,000 tonnes of coal every day. In 1999 an explosion there claimed 50 lives, while in 2001 another blast left 55 people dead. A gas leak in September 2006 killed 13 miners.
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