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Ukrainian mining accidents death toll passes 30

Other News Materials 30 July 2011 23:41 (UTC +04:00)

The death toll from a pair of Ukrainian mining accidents the day before rose above 30 Saturday, as rescuers found at least 12 more bodies in the two separate locations, dpa reported.

The discoveries at the mines in Sukhodilsk, in the Donbass mining region, and at a mine near the city of Makiivka, were reported Saturday by Ukrainian Civil Defence Ministry officials, as quoted by Interfax.

The workers at Sukhodilsk died in a methane gas explosion 915 metres underground. Two people are still missing there.

There were 252 miners in the mine at the time of the explosion. Rescue workers deployed 11 separate teams.

Meanwhile, the death toll rose to eight at Makiivka, where workers died when an elevator in which they were travelling in fell 70 metres in a mine. Three people are still missing from that accident.

Unions on Saturday threw some of the blame for the accidents at mine operators, saying their greed had demanded that workers extract ever more coal even as the security situation worsened.

Ukraine coalmines have a poor safety record. Three miners died in a coalmine on Tuesday. Methane explosions are a particular problem, an explosion in a mine near Donetsk in 2007 claiming 101 lives.

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