At least one coal miner has died and three others were missing after a blast at a Russian coal mine, reports Interfax news agency.
A local law enforcement official said 101 of the 105 miners who had been in the mine in the city of Prokopyevsk in the Kemerovo region of Siberia had made it to the surface.
A miner’s body was found after the blast at the Dzerzhinsky mine in a coal-rich section of central Siberia known as the Kuzbass.
The local adminstration said the fate of three other miners was unknown.
Fatal accidents are frequent in Russia’s ageing pits despite improvements in safety since the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991.
Most accidents have been attributed to methane gas blasts, negligence or a failure to follow safety regulations.
A methane blast at a coal mine in northern Russia last February killed 18 miners.
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