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Fifty-one people, 46 miners and five rescuers, were killed Thursday, November 25 after an accident in a coal mine in Siberia, a new disaster that strikes a regularly mourning sector in Russia. A three-day mourning was decreed from this Friday.
The balance sheet rose sharply on Thursday at nightfall. The accident claimed the lives of 46 miners trapped underground and five rescuers, according to the latest information on Friday and around forty minors were also hospitalized. On Friday morning, one of these rescuers, first declared dead, was finally found alive. He spent the night buried, then rose to the surface alone, according to the Russian Ministry of Emergency Situations.
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 around 40 others were 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 has been established that these officials “ allowed a violation of industrial safety rules at dangerous sites “Which caused” un gas-dynamic phenomenon In the mine, the committee said in a statement.
“ It’s 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)