Kiev: Seven miners were killed and nine injured when a gas explosion ripped through a state-owned coal mine in eastern Ukraine, officials said Tuesday.
The blast occurred Monday evening at a depth of around 800 metres (2,600 feet) while some 90 workers were on shift at the mine in Makiyivka in Ukraine`s mineral-rich Donetsk region.
"Seven miners were killed and nine hospitalised," the emergency situations service said in a statement.
The bodies of all the victims had been recovered by early Tuesday and work at the mine has been suspended, the statement said.
Fatal accidents are a regular feature at Ukrainian mines, most of which are located in the country`s industrial eastern region. Many of the mines are underfunded and poorly equipped, and safety violations are rife.
In the worst accident of its kind in the country`s post-Soviet history, more than 100 miners were killed in an explosion in 2007 at the Zasyadko mine, one of the three biggest in Ukraine.
