A total of 13 people were killed and 11 were reported
missing tonight after a mine blast in eastern Ukraine, an emergencies ministry spokesman said. The accident happened three weeks after 35 miners died in a colliery fire nearby.
About 300 miners died last year and almost 150 have been killed so far this year in Ukraine's coal mines plagued by poor working conditions, a lax regard for safety rules and lack of funds for modernisation.
Some 600,000 people work in the former Soviet republic of Ukraine's 200 mines.
