A methane gas explosion ripped through a coal mine in Kazakhstan on Friday, killing at least seven miners and leaving 23 others missing, officials said, according to AP. Fire sparked by the morning blast was still raging in late afternoon, making impossible any efforts to reach the 23 miners trapped in the Abay mine in the central Karaganda region, Deputy Prime Minister Umirzak Shukeyev told reporters at the scene. Emergencies Minister Vladimir Bozhko said there was «no guarantee» they would be found alive. The district hospital admitted 14 miners with serious burns and other injuries, four of whom were in critical condition, the hospital's chief doctor, Amanzhol Abraimov, said. Authorities cordoned off the mine as relatives of the missing miners gathered nearby. «Everyone is frightened,» said Serik Zhunusov, a brother of one of the injured miners. Zhunusov, who was also a miner, said the blast occurred 500 meters (1,600 feet) underground. The Abay mine is one of eight owned by the world's largest steel-maker, Luxembourg-based ArcelorMittal SA, in this Central Asian nation. The mines are part of a complex that includes the Temirtau smelter, one of the world's largest steel plants. Lakshmi Mittal, ArcelorMittal's president and CEO, said he deeply regretted the accident and its causes were being investigated. «We are doing everything we can to locate those still missing and to assist the bereaved,» he said in a statement. In 2006, an explosion at another Mittal-owned coal mine killed 41 people. Authorities concluded the blast occurred as a result of safety violations, and eight workers were convicted of negligence. Methane blasts are a hazard at coal mines across the former Soviet Union. In November, an explosion at a mine in Ukraine killed 101 miners.
