37 missing in Ukraine mine explosion

THIRTY-SEVEN people were missing today after an explosion ripped through a coal mine in eastern Ukraine, an emergency official said.

"The fate of 37 people who were in the mine when the explosion took place at around 5am (1200 AEST) local time remains unknown," Andriy Bondarenko, the regional head of the Emergency Situations Ministry,s aid.

Three people on the surface were injured by the blast at the Karl Marx mine in the town of Yenakiyevo in the coal-rich Donetsk region, Mr Bondarenko said.

The mine was closed down yesterday due to safety violations and only a skeletal staff was working at the time of the blast, he said.

Work has been suspended at 20 mines in the region following an explosion on May 23 which killed 11 people, one of a series of disasters to strike the region's aging mines in recent years.

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