11 dead, dozens trapped after fire at Siberian coal mine, Russian officials say
CBC
A fire at a coal mine in Siberia killed 11 people and injured more than 40 others on Thursday, with dozens of others still trapped, authorities said.
The blaze took place in the Kemerovo region in southwestern Siberia. Russia's state Tass news agency reported, citing an unnamed emergency official, that coal dust caught fire, and that smoke quickly filled the Litsvyazhnaya mine through the ventilation system.
A total of 285 people were in the mine at the time of the incident — 239 of them have been evacuated and 46 other miners are still trapped underground, Kemerovo Governor Sergei Tsivilyov said on his page on the messaging app Telegram. "Forty-three people have been hospitalized with injuries, four of them in serious condition," Tsivilyov said.
Earlier Thursday, Russia's acting minister for emergency situations, Alexander Chupriyan, said 44 miners have been hospitalized with injuries. The difference in injury tolls reported by different officials couldn't be immediately reconciled.
Efforts to rescue the rest are still ongoing, hampered by large amounts of smoke.
Russia's Investigative Committee has launched a criminal probe into the fire on charges of violating safety regulations that led to deaths.
President Vladimir Putin on Thursday extended his condolences to the families of the killed miners and ordered the government to offer all the necessary assistance to those who were injured, Putin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters.
In 2016, 36 miners were killed in a series of methane explosions in a coal mine in Russia's far north. In the wake of the incident, the authorities analyzed the safety of the country's 58 coal mines and declared 20 of them, or 34 per cent, potentially unsafe.
The Listvyazhnaya mine in the Kemerovo region wasn't among them at the time, according to media reports.
The latest inspection of the mine took place on Nov. 19, the Interfax news agency reported, citing officials from Rostekhnadzor, Russia's state technology and ecology watchdog. The report didn't offer any details on the results of the inspection.
Arab Gulf states reported new missile and drone attacks on Sunday after Iran threatened to widen its campaign as the war in the Middle East entered its third week.
The former secretary general of NATO says he doesn't think allies will be pulled further into the conflict in the Middle East, but he's concerned the ongoing war with Iran will benefit Russia's economy and take the world's attention away from the invasion of Ukraine.
As American and Israeli strikes pound Iran — while it attacks shipping and energy infrastructure across the Persian Gulf — U.S. President Donald Trump made a new threat to Tehran's leaders.
The armed man who rammed his vehicle into one of the largest Reform synagogues in the U.S. Thursday has been identified as a 41-year-old naturalized citizen born in Lebanon, according to federal officials.
With jagged cliffs rising from the Arabian Sea, the Strait of Hormuz is striking in its scenery — and these days, its emptiness. This resource superhighway, which normally hosts more than a hundred of the world’s largest oil and liquid natural gas (LNG) tankers every day, has seen no more than a handful all week.
The Canadian government said Tuesday it is alarmed by the escalation of violence and attacks in Lebanon, as the war in the Middle East expands.
In a resounding victory that is guaranteed to reshape Nepal's politics, rapper-turned-politician Balendra Shah appeared headed for a landslide win in the South Asian country's first polls since youth-led protests toppled the previous government last fall.
China’s latest blueprint for driving growth in its economy was largely written before the U.S. and Israel instigated the most far-reaching war in the Middle East in decades.
U.S. President Donald Trump's firing of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem on Thursday overshadowed the announcement of his plans to nominate Republican Sen. Markwayne Mullin as her successor.
The truck carrying Nepali prime ministerial candidate Balendra Shah was swarmed by cheering supporters in the capital, Kathmandu, on Saturday, unable to inch forward as the former rapper, wearing sunglasses and a sleek black suit, danced on top of the roof.
Israel sent troops into southern Lebanon on Tuesday and warned residents of more than 80 villages to evacuate as the Iran-backed militant Hezbollah group said it was ready for an "open war" with Israel in the wake of the U.S.-Israeli war with Iran.
U.S. President Donald Trump has given Americans a short list of his objectives in attacking Iran, but when it comes to the justification for launching the war and how the conflict is expected to play out, he and his team are sending mixed messages.