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Ukraine mourning for coal mine blast victims

05 March 2015 04:45 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. State flags will fly at half-mast, and a minute’s silence will be observed across Ukraine at noon on Thursday, APA reports quoting TASS

The Ukrainian president has signed a decree declaring March 5 a day of mourning for the miners killed in an explosion at Zasyadko coal mine in Donetsk, eastern Ukraine, the presidential press service reports.

State flags will fly at half-mast, and a minute’s silence will be observed across Ukraine at noon on Thursday.

An explosion occurred at the Zasyadko coal mine in eastern Ukraine overnight to Wednesday.

The Zasyadko mine is a coal producing enterprise in Donetsk. It was commissioned in 1958. The mine has seen five serious accidents over the past 15 years. The most serious one of them took the lives of 101 miners on November 18, 2007.

Two weeks later another explosion injured 52 miners. A third mine blast the day after claimed the lives of five rescuers working to liquidate the aftermath of the explosion, and left more than 30 people injured.