The Russian industrial safety watchdog has drawn up a list of people whose possible negligence may have led to blasts which killed dozens of miners in Western Siberia in May, a business daily said on Tuesday.
The official death toll from two blasts that rocked the Raspadskaya coal mine near the town of Mezhdurechensk on May 9 currently stands at 67, with 23 people still listed as missing. Around 100 people were also injured. Many of the dead were rescue workers who went into the mine after the first explosion.
The list is made up of 15 people, including the mine's ex-director Igor Volkov and several low-ranking managers responsible for the mine's technical condition, Kommersant said.
However, top managers, including Raspadskaya Coal Company CEO Gennady Kozovoy, are missing from the list - as are members of the mine's second largest shareholder, Evraz Group.
A source close to the investigation told Kommersant that the list was not complete and may be expanded "at any moment."
In June, the Russian industrial safety watchdog extended the probe into the incident until the end of August.
The accident at the Raspadskaya coal mine is believed to have been caused by poor observation of safety regulations.
The Russian industrial safety watchdog detected over 1,400 safety violations at the mine in 2009 and in January-April 2010 and suspended production five times.
MOSCOW, July 20 (RIA Novosti)
