DONETSK, January 3 (RIA Novosti) – Rescuers found the body of one of three miners missing after a methane gas explosion at a coalmine in the town of Kirovskoye in eastern Ukraine, the Donetsk Region Prosecutor’s Office reported on Thursday.

A spontaneous methane outburst at the Komsomolets Donbassa coalmine on Thursday morning caused rock collapse, trapping four workers underground. One of the miners managed to leave the accident-hit area on his own.

“By now, the body of a shaft miner born in 1981 has been found. The fate of two miners, a 42-year-old engine driver and a 32-year-old assistant section foreman remains unknown,” the Prosecutor’s Office said.

A criminal probe into the accident has been launched.

Mining accidents are frequent in Ukraine. In 2007, more than 100 miners died in a blast at a mine near Donetsk.