A total of 64 workers were trapped after the first blast, which took place late on Saturday. Four hours later another blast rocked the mine, leaving 20 rescuers unaccounted for.
Below is a list of major accidents in Russian mines in 2004-2010
2004
* Six miners were killed and over 20 injured in the Sibirskaya mine in the Kuznetsk coal basin, or Kuzbass, in southwest Siberia on January 10
* A methane blast in the Tayzhina mine in the town of Osinniki, also in Kuzbass, killed a total of 47 miners on April 10
* On October 28, 13 people were killed in an accident in Listvyazhnaya mine in South Siberia's Kemerovo Region. 21 miners were hospitalized with carbon monoxide poisoning
2005
* A blast of methane-air mixture sent a fireball across the Yesaulskaya mine in the Kemerovo Region, killing 25 miners and rescuers on February 9
* One person was killed and ten injured in an accident at a mine near the town of Kiselyovka, Kemerovo Region on May 18
* Equipment malfunction caused an accident which killed four workers in the Kemerovo Region's Anzherskaya mine
2006
* A blast rocked the Tomskaya mine in the Kemerovo Region on February 8. There were 45 people at the moment of the blast, 43 of them managed to escape to safety. Rescuers found one dead body and rescued an injured miner
* Two people were killed in a methane blast at the Krasnokamenskaya mine in Kuzbass on March 4
* An underground blast at a rare-earth metals mining facility killed two workers and injured one in the Chita Region on April 17
* All 41 workers managed to escape unharmed during an accident at the Kusheyakovskaya mine near Novokuznetsk on July 20
* Three people were killed during a sudden coal and gas burst at the Pervomayskaya mine in the Kemerovo Region on August 14
2007
* A total of 110 miners were killed in Russia's deadliest coalmine blast in 75 years, which took place on March 19 in the Ulyanovskaya mine in the Kemerovo Region
* On May 24, a total of 217 miners were in the Yubileynaya mine when methane-air mixture exploded, 29 of them were killed.
* A total of 11 miners were killed in a blast in the Komsomolskaya mine in Vorkuta on June 25
2008
* On May 30 roof caved in during renovation works in the Lenin mine in the Kemerovo Region, killing five workers. A methane blast at the same mine injured 17 people on July 29
* Seven miners received burns of varying degrees when explosive works caused a methane leak in the Voroshilov mine near the city of Prokopyevsk in the Kemerovo Region on June 8
* A blast occurred on December 11 at the Rasvumchorrsky mine eight kilometers (4.9 miles) from the town of Kirovsk in northwestern Russia, as workers were preparing to carry out a controlled explosion. 12 people were killed
2009
* On February 14 a team of rescue workers descended in the Voroshilov mine in the town of Prokopyevsk in Kuzbass, to investigate the cause of a high concentration of carbon monoxide underground. Two of them were killed in an explosion which followed
* A day later two miners were killed in a cave-in in the Ziminka mine in Kemerovo
* Two workers were killed on February 22 in the Dzerzhinskaya mine in Kemerovo
* Four miners of the Korkinskaya mine the Chelyabinsk Region, Central Urals, received injuries of varying degrees during a methane blast on April 3. All 38 people in the were evacuated to safety
* Five people were injured when methane-air mixture exploded in the Voroshilov mine in southern Kuzbass on September 8
* Nine people were killed in a blast at the Yestyuninskaya mine near the Urals city of Nizhny Tagil. A total of 123 workers were in the mine when the blast occurred. Most of them were evacuated safely.
2010
* On February 18 a sudden coal and gas burst occurred in a mine near the town of Bereznyaki in the Urals' Perm Territory, one person was killed
MOSCOW, May 9 (RIA Novosti)
