SEARCH FOR 12 MISSING MINERS CONTINUES ON EAST-UKRAINIAN COALMINE

DONETSK, June 10 (Itar-Tass) - Teams of mine-rescue men continued searching for twelve miners who were reported missing in the pits of the Karl Marx coalmine in the East-Ukrainian Donetsk region after an explosion of methane that occurred Sunday morning there. Since Sunday afternoon, 24 miners have been found alive and lifted to the surface. All of them have been taken to hospital but only two have traumas and burns. The rest are getting treatment for what the physicians call 'situational neurosis'. Another five ground workers of the mine, three of them women, were also taken to hospital. They received traumas and burns from the blast wind and rafale that burst out of a kilometer-deep mine shaft. Only one miner has been found dead so far but the plight of another twelve missing miners still remains uncertain. And yet, there is hope that they are alive, too. Anna Vakhotskaya, the press secretary of Ukraine's First Deputy Prime Ministers said the rescuers heard people's voices in a gallery 550 meters deep. Early morning Tuesday, rescuers from Ukraine's State Mine-Rescue Service were trying to get to the gallery. Even the most seasoned experts on mine-rescue operations cannot believe that people were found alive after this huge explosion that has no precedents in the history of Ukraine's mining industry, and the very fact of miners' survival in the lower galleries of the mine has necessitated corrections in the initial version of the accident. Specialists say methane might have gotten inflamed much earlier than when it reached the presumable point of ignition. This sent the fiery storm up the mine's shaft past the galleries where coalminers were working. However, the experts will be able to pass the final conclusions only after the lower galleries and shafts are restored. In the meantime, a government commission in charge of finding out the causes of the accident is working on the mine. The Secretary of Ukraine's Security Council, Raissa Bogatyryova has come there, too. Several versions of the emergency are being considered now, including an encroachment on authorized safety and a failure of the safety equipment. A possibility of human error is being examined, too. "None of these versions has been brushed aside so far until the major one is identified among them," Bogatyryova said.