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Rescuers battle through rubble to reach trapped miner in Siberia

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KEMEROVO, August 15 (RIA Novosti) - Rescuers are continuing their efforts to reach a miner trapped in a West Siberian mine after an accident and have cleared almost a third of the rubble in their way, a coal mine representative said Thursday.

Four miners were in a tunnel in Pervomayskaya mine in Berezovsky, about 30 kilometers (20 miles) north of regional center Kemerovo, when a sudden gas emission was thought to have caused an explosion Monday. Two miners were killed, one managed to escape to the surface, but another is believed to be trapped below the surface.

"At 5 a.m. Moscow time [1 a.m. GMT] rescuers had cleared nine of 30 meters of rubble," the Kuzbassugol spokesman said.

The company representative said the rescue work had proceeded slowly Monday because of a high build-up of gas, but had progressed after two ventilation pipes were installed to clear the air.

Kuzbassugol also said Monday that it would pay a million rubles ($37,000) in compensation to the families of the two miners killed in the coal mine.

Russian mines have been hit by a series of fatal accidents in recent years attributed by many to poor maintenance due to the coal industry's chronic under funding.

Governor Aman Tuleyev, who is in charge of the emergency headquarters leading the rescue effort, ordered coal companies and mine owners to check safety conditions at all the region's mines, the regional administration's press service said.

At least six miners also lost their lives in a blast in a mine in eastern Ukraine Sunday.

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