At least 16 miners were killed Friday after an explosion ripped through a mine in eastern Ukraine, authorities said.
Ten miners remain missing after the blast at the Sukhodilska-Vostochnaya mine operated by Metinvest, Ukraine’s largest steel producer, in the country’s Luhansk Region. Two miners were hospitalised with burns.
Ukraine’s emergencies ministry said the blast occurred early Friday at a depth of 915 meters. Investigators have yet to determine the cause of the blast.
Mining accidents are frequent in Ukraine. In 2007, more than 100 miners died in a blast at a mine near Donetsk, in the east of the former Soviet republic.