PROKOPYVESK, Russia, Jan. 22 (UPI) -- A methane explosion in a Prokopyevsk, Russia, coal mine killed two miners and injured two others Wednesday, the national Emergency Ministry reported.
The blast was in an abandoned section of the Dzerzhinsky mine in southwestern Siberia, near the border with Mongolia and 3,482 kilometers (2,164 miles) east of Moscow. Nine miners were working in the vicinity of the explosion when it occurred, the Russian news agency RIA Novosti reported.
Ninety of the 105 people in the mine were able to walk from the mine after the explosion, the official Russian news service ITAR-Tass said.
Except for the four casualties, all were brought to the surface safely, RIA Novosti said.
"Each mine employee has a motion sensor. Of the 105 persons who were down [in the mine] at the time of the incident, 104 had their sensors working," a mine administration spokesman said.
