60 dead in Russian mine blast, 30 missing

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MEZHDURECHENSK, Russia, May 12 (AP): Thirty Siberian coal miners are buried so deep in Russia's largest underground coal mine that rescuers use up most of their oxygen tanks trying to reach them and can't spend much time searching for the missing men, the regional governor said Tuesday.
Prime Minister Vladimir Putin traveled to the Raspadskaya mine, about 3,000 kilometers (1,900 miles) east of Moscow, to observe rescue operations, and he raised a series of sharp questions about mine safety and whether the initial rescue work was conducted improperly.
The death toll from the two explosions that hit the mine in the Siberian region of Kemerovo rose to 60 after rescuers found eight more bodies, the Itar-Tass news agency reporte early Wednesday. Prospects of finding any survivors nearly four days after the blasts were dimming. Emergencies Ministry spokeswoman Veronika Smolskaya said rescuers searching the tunnels have not established contact with any of the missing.
Ventilation has not been restored to the mine and rescuers are forced to work with oxygen masks. Those missing are believed to be some 500 metres (1,600 feet) below the surface and about 1.5 kilometres (nearly a mile) from the nearest shaft, Kemerovo Governor Aman Tuleyev said.
"By the time the rescuers get to the main collapse area, their oxygen is almost at its limits. Therefore, little time remains to clean up the collapse," he said, according to the ITAR-Tass news agency.
He said two ventilator shafts are ready to be put in operation, but that there are points where the coal is smoldering, raising the risk that pumping in additional air could set off a new blast.