Siberian coal mine blast kills 38 people

By Andrei Borisov

YUBILEYNAYA MINE, Russia (Reuters) - A methane explosion killed 38 people in a Siberian coal mine on Thursday, weeks after 110 miners died in a blast at a neighboring mine operated by the same company.

Rescue workers halted their search, believing there to be no more survivors in the Yubileynaya pit in the Kemerovo region of western Siberia, emergency officials said.

Relatives scanned a list of the dead on a wall at the mine offices.

"They will start bringing the bodies to the surface now," said one woman with tears welling in her eyes. "They say they have identified everyone."

The blast ripped through the mine at 0740 Moscow time (0340 GMT) when 217 people were below ground.

Russia's industrial safety watchdog said its inspectors had twice applied to have the Yubileynaya mine closed for safety violations, including some in the shaft at the centre of the blast, but were overruled by local courts.

Miners with grimy faces smoked nervously as a soft drizzle fell on the rusting and dilapidated Soviet-era mine buildings, surrounded by wooded hills.

Kemerovo governor Aman Tuleyev declared Saturday a day of mourning in the region. President Vladimir Putin, on a visit to Western Europe, expressed his condolences.