International News

MOSCOW, (APP/AFP): Four miners were killed and 26 were
missing after a pit collapse in northern Russia, in the latest tragedy to hit the accident-prone industry, investigators said on Friday.
A total of 110 people were on duty at the Severnaya coal mine in the
remote Komi region on Thursday when it was hit by a “pressure burst”, Vorkutaugol, which owns the mine, said.
Eighty workers were rescued and brought to the surface.
A spokeswoman for Vorkutaugol, Tatyana Bushkova, said a methane
explosion had also taken place in the mine.
“But so far it’s difficult to say what was the root cause of the
accident,” Bushkova told AFP.
Vladimir Markin, a spokesman for the Moscow-based Investigative
Committee, Russia’s main investigative agency, said: “Currently the fate of 26 miners is unknown, four people died.”