Russia: coal mine accident kills dozens in Siberia
Investigators and rescuers arrive at the Listviajnaïa coal mine, in Gramoteïno, in the Siberian region of Kemerovo, on November 25, 2021. © Alexander PATRIN / AFP
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2 min
Fifty-two people, 46 miners and six rescuers, were killed Thursday, November 25 after an accident in a coal mine in Siberia, a new disaster that hits a regularly mourning sector in Russia.
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If the initial toll of this accident which occurred early in the morning reported 14 dead, it increased sharply at nightfall.
“
According to preliminary information, no one survived in the mine.
52 people died,
”reported the official TASS agency, citing a source within the emergency services.
The accident claimed the lives of 46 miners trapped underground and six rescuers, according to this source, also cited by the RIA Novosti and Interfax agencies.
Forty minors were also hospitalized.
The authorities had indicated that they had received an alert at around 08:35 local time (01:35 UT) Thursday on the presence of smoke in the Listviajnaya mine, in Gramoteïno, in the Siberian region of Kemerovo, where many coal mines are located.
According to the press service of local governor Sergei Tsivilev, 285 people were in the mine at the time of the accident, the causes of which were not immediately known.
The majority were rescued by rescuers but 46 others remained stranded underground.
By midday, contact was also lost with one of the rescue teams which included six rescuers.
Search operations were finally suspended due to a risk of explosion.
Breach of safety standards
The local investigation committee opened an investigation for "violation of safety standards" and announced in the evening the arrest of the mine manager, his deputy, as well as the person in charge of the area where the accident took place. place.
It was established that these officials "
allowed a violation of industrial safety rules on dangerous sites
" which caused "
a gas-dynamic phenomenon
" in the mine, the committee said in a statement.
"
It is a great tragedy
", for his part declared President Vladimir Putin on television.
The families and relatives of the miners, gathered in front of the entrance to the territory of the mine, did not wish to speak, according to an AFP correspondent on the spot.
Three days of mourning have been decreed in the region from Friday.
(with AFP)
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