The explosion at the Komsomolskaya mine in the arctic coal-mining town of Vorkuta, in the Komi Republic, occurred Monday evening when 277 miners were working underground. Rescuers evacuated at least 250 miners, but two are still missing.
The head of the technological watchdog said that four explosions had taken place at the mine, not two as reported previously.
"Four explosions occurred at the Komsomolskaya mine in quick succession, at some distance from each other," Konstantin Pulikovsky said, adding that specialists had not as yet reached center of the blast.
Vorkutaugol, the company that owns the mine, said the families of those killed in the blast will be paid 1 million rubles [$38,000] in compensation.
Local prosecutors launched an investigation into the explosion, which comes in the wake of a series of tragedies at Russian mines since the beginning of the year.
The two latest explosions, at the Yubileinaya and Ulyanovskaya mines in Siberia's Kemerovo Region in May, killed a total of 150 people.
