Russia was on Saturday night gripped by the spectacle of rescuers struggling to save up to 30 miners trapped beneath tons of rubble after an explosion in a Siberian coal mine left 22 of their colleagues dead.
A blast, apparently caused by a methane gas leak, tore through the Taizhina mine shaft at 6.30am, near the mining town of Osinniki, 3 000km to the east of Moscow in the coal-rich region of Kuzbass. Thirteen miners were reported to have scrambled to the surface immediately after the blast, while 10 hours later, the team of 150 rescuers said they had retrieved 20 corpses from the shaft.
This left an estimated 30 miners still trapped hundreds of metres underground; the desperate rescue captivating Russia and eclipsing the important Orthodox Christian festival of Easter.
Aman Tuleyev, the regional governor who is overseeing the rescue efforts, told Russian television that the shortest route to the miners was blocked by 25 metres of rubble so dense it could not be burrowed through.
He said rescuers were attempting to break through via a longer route from the next mineshaft. Voices were reportedly heard from inside the mine. It was not clear how long the rescuers thought it would take to reach the miners, an estimated 5km from the main shaft.
Sergei Cheremnov, a spokesperson for the Kuzbass district, said: ‘There was a big explosion and then a serious collapse of the shaft’s walls. Both the electrical and ventilation systems failed.’
Local prosecutors have opened a criminal investigation into the blast over a suspected breach of safety laws.
President Vladimir Putin will face awkward questions following yet another mining accident. In October, after 71 miners were rescued and two died after spending six days trapped by icy water in a mine near the southern town of Novoshakhtinsk, the President called for an urgent review of mining safety. Yet little was done, leaving the Kremlin again open to accusations that its reform rhetoric is not matched by concrete action.
In an attempt to save face, the Kremlin last night had its new prime minister, Mikhail Fradkov, form a commission to investigate the blast, headed by a senior cabinet minister.
Built in 1998, the Taizhina mine is relatively new, but has already suffered one accident: one miner died and two were injured when a roof collapsed in September 2002. Local officials on Saturday tried to deny witness reports of a loud blast in the mine.
In January, five miners were killed by another methane blast in the same region, and in June an electrical short circuit apparently caused another methane blast that killed 12 miners in a different shaft.
Mining accidents are alarmingly common in Russia, where miners work in hideous conditions, often working two shifts back-to-back for periods of 13 hours.
Mine owners have repeatedly been accused of complacency and indifference to the litany of accidents that blight their workers. Compensation payouts are low and rare, prompting accusations that life is cheap in Russia’s mining industry.
The relatives of the two miners who died in October’s disaster at Novoshakhtinsk are still fighting for compensation. The widow of the ‘thirteenth miner’, Sergei Tkach, who died when he went to search for an exit for his 12 colleagues, received only about $1 281 in compensation. Tkach earned about $84 a month. – Guardian Unlimited Â