RUSSIA:Coal miners perished in the second disaster to hit the Russian industry within two months, despite an official promise to tighten safety controls across the notoriously dangerous industry.
The final death toll at the Siberian pit was expected to reach 38 - fewer than the 110 casualties from the March blast, but still among the worst in a series of similar incidents in recent years.
The latest tragedy was compounded by an announcement from Russia's safety inspection watchdog that it had twice attempted to shut the mine because of violations, but was blocked in court. The most recent legal battle was less than a month ago.
Some sections of the mine were temporarily shut because of the watchdog's concerns, including the section where the latest blast occurred. In both recent tragedies, an explosion triggered by tasteless, odourless methane gas was blamed.
Russia's emergencies ministry has already set up an investigation into the incident at the Yubileynaya pit, which translates as "jubilee", in the Kemerovo region of western Siberia.
It is just 40km (25 miles) from the site of the earlier blast in Ulyanovskaya, which was the single worst mining disaster since the collapse of the Soviet Union.
The March explosion occurred in one of the country's newest mines, whereas this latest occurred in a facility which has been operating since 1966 and employed about 1,000 people.
At least 178 escaped alive, with most of the dead in a confined area underground where the methane explosion occurred.
Relatives were forced to scan lists of the survivors and casualties in the Soviet-era buildings on the surface.
A fading sign at the entrance to the pit proclaimed coal as the region's "black gold".
By late last night all of the dead men had been identified, with emergency workers struggling to get their remains back to the surface.
The head of Russia's independent mining union, Alexander Sergeyev, appealed for a radical overhaul of the way miners are paid, which he says encourages them to cut corners in order to make a decent wage.
Despite Russia's booming wealth, with more billionaires in Moscow than any other city in the world, hard work deep underground for low pay remains most people's best source of income in remote regions of the country such as western Siberia, where the blasts occurred.
Miners are sometimes believed to muffle alarms if they ring with a methane alert, because this would force them to quit their shift, hitting their bonus earnings. In many bleak industrialised pockets of Siberia, few jobs offer other opportunities and miners earn about €500 per month. The pay system had just been changed at the site of yesterday's disaster to try to improve safety standards.
"The tragedy is a result of the policies that were in place earlier," said Mr Sergeyev.
The investment vehicle for Russia's wealthiest man, Roman Abramovich, controls 41 per cent of Evraz, the firm which holds a half stake in both mines, but not management control. Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, there have been numerous accidents at pits, with about one per year in Russia and many more in nearby Ukraine.
An investigation into safety standards at all Russian mines was initiated after the earlier explosion, when it was discovered that new, high-tech safety controls installed by a British firm to check for methane gas levels had been turned off locally.
The entire region's heavy industry base was developed by Stalin during his efforts to turn Russia into a major world power. Coal remains king in the region, with about 120,000 people working underground, half of the entire coal workforce in the vast country.