An explosion swept through a mine in the coal-rich Kuzbass region of Siberia on Wednesday, killing 17 workers and leaving nine missing, the Emergency Situations Ministry said. The blast occurred at the 20-year-old Yesaulskaya mine in the Kemerovo region, about 3,000 kilometers (1,850 miles) east of Moscow. Four miners were hospitalized with injuries but their lives were out of danger, said Olga Raskova of the Kemerovo regional government press service. Thirty miners were in the shaft when the explosion occurred, the press service said. Rescuers were searching for missing miners, Raskova said.
