Siberia mine tragedy kills 12, traps over 80

MOSCOW (AFP) - – Over 80 miners and rescuers were trapped in a Russian mine Sunday after twin methane gas blasts killed 12 and then cut off the salvage workers who had descended down the shaft to find survivors.
Traumatised relatives were holding a vigil outside the Raspadskaya mine in the Kemerovo region of Siberia, in an agonizing wait after rescue efforts were completely halted due to the dangerous conditions inside the shaft.
The regional governor warned that ordering any more rescue workers down would be tantamount to a death sentence, with the shaft still full of gas and a high risk of new explosions.
A grim-faced Prime Minister Vladimir Putin told a meeting with emergency officials broadcast on state television that the situation at the mine was "tragic".
"The saddest thing is that we cannot send in additional rescuers now as it is very dangerous due to the lack of ventilation. But we cannot sit on our hands and must do everything to save people," he added.
The first blast at the mine went off late Saturday at around 1700 GMT while 370 people were working.
Emergencies Minister Sergei Shoigu said 12 miners were killed and 55 wounded, the Interfax news agency said. Three hundred miners managed to climb to the surface and to safety.
But around two hours later -- after rescuers had entered the mine to find survivors and bring corpses to the surface -- a second explosion went off, trapping both the remaining miners and the rescue workers themselves.
There were now 83 people trapped in the mine, including 19 rescue workers, Shoigu said. The last radio contact with the rescuers was 30 minutes before the second explosion.
State television pictures showed that the explosions had been so powerful that the surface infrastructure of the mine had been reduced to smoking wrecks. Seven corpses have already been pulled to the surface.
"The rescue efforts will resume once the atmosphere is restored in the mine," said Kemerovo region's governor Aman Tuleyev, according to the ITAR-TASS news agency.
"But to carry out rescue work now -- that would be sending people to their deaths," he added.
Loved ones of the miners, many in tears, were seen by an AFP photographer gathered outside the management of the mine in the town of Mezhdurechensk where a list of the missing had been pinned up.
A top mine rescue official, Sergei Sharov, told the relatives that rescue work could resume at 1700 GMT, a full 24 hours after the disaster took place, Interfax reported.
He warned: "The ventilation slits have been destroyed, the air is full of gas and there is still a large risk of new explosions." But he added: "There is still hope."
The tragedy cast a shadow on military parades held nationwide to mark the Soviet victory over the Nazis 65 years ago in World War II.
Raspadskaya, Russia's largest stand-alone coking coal producer, is part-owned by steelmaker Evraz, a company 36 percent-owned by Chelsea Football Club's billionaire chief Roman Abramovich.
A company source told ITAR-TASS that there had been a sudden build-up of methane gas inside the mine and the miners had no time to escape before the explosion.
A criminal investigation has been launched for "negligence of security rules in mining", the investigative committee said.
Putin ordered Shoigu to fly to the scene while Tuleyev cancelled his attendance at the local Victory Day parade to take part in the rescue effort.
Deadly mine accidents are relatively common in Russia because of ageing infrastructure and violations of safety regulations.
Russia has been blighted in the last few years by tragedies at energy facilities, most notably a flood at Russia's largest hydroelectric plant in August that killed 75 people.