Kemerovo Governor Sergei Tsivilyov (centre) speaks to the media at the Listvyazhnaya mine building, near Belovo, Kemerovo region, southwestern Siberia, Russia, on Friday. A devastating explosion in a Siberian coal mine on Thursday killed dozens of miners and rescuers.
Sergei Gavrilenko / AP
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Sergei Gavrilenko / AP
Kemerovo Governor Sergei Tsivilyov (centre) speaks to the media at the Listvyazhnaya mine building, near Belovo, Kemerovo region, southwestern Siberia, Russia, on Friday. A devastating explosion in a Siberian coal mine on Thursday killed dozens of miners and rescuers.
Sergei Gavrilenko / AP
MOSCOW (AP) – Russian authorities on Friday released the names of 51 people believed to have died after a devastating methane blast. explosion in a coal mine in Siberia, believed to be the deadliest since 2010.
The list with the names of 46 miners and five rescuers has been published online by the Kemerovo regional government in southwestern Siberia, where the mine is located. Authorities initially reported 52 deaths, but search teams on Friday found a survivor in what officials described as a “miracle.”
A total of 285 miners at the Listvyazhnaya mine at the time of Thursday morning’s explosion quickly filled the mine with toxic fumes. A total of 239 people were rescued immediately after the explosion, and more than 60 people sought medical assistance to recover from some injuries.
Officials on Thursday confirmed 14 people were killed – 11 miners and three rescuers were killed while searching for others trapped in a remote area of the mine. Rescuers were forced to pause the search for several hours because of a build-up of methane and carbon monoxide.
Rescuers Alexander Zakovryashin were pulled from the rubble on Friday morning still conscious. According to emergency officials, he was hospitalized with moderate carbon monoxide poisoning.
Acting Emergencies Minister Alexander Chupriyan said: “I can consider it a miracle.
Kemerovo Governor Sergei Tsivilyov acknowledged on Friday morning that finding other survivors was highly unlikely.
It is the deadliest landmine accident in Russia since 2010, when two methane explosions and a fire killed 91 people at the Raspadskaya mine in the same Kemerovo region.
In 2016, 36 miners were killed in a series of methane explosions at a coal mine in Russia’s northernmost region. After the incident, authorities analyzed the safety of 58 of the country’s coal mines and declared 20 of them potentially unsafe. Media reports stated that the Listvyazhnaya mine was not among them, however in 2004 a methane explosion in the mine killed 13 people.
Russia’s leading independent news site, Meduza, reports that this year, authorities have suspended operations in certain areas of the mine nine times and fined the mine more than 4 million rubles (about $53,000). for safety violations.
Law enforcement officials also said Friday that miners had complained about high levels of methane in the mine.
Regional officials have declared three days of mourning while Russia’s Investigative Committee has launched a criminal investigation into potential safety breaches. The mine manager and two senior managers were taken into custody.
A separate criminal investigation was launched Friday into allegations that state officials who inspected the mine earlier this month were negligent.
