COAL MINERS SURVIVED AN EXPLOSION, 1999-05-24 (photo)

Coal miners who survived an explosion at Zasyadko mine in Donetsk, talk to each other May 24. A methane gas explosion ripped through a deep coal mine in western Ukraine on Monday, killing 35 miners more than a km (half a mile) below ground. Many bodies brought out of the Zasyadko mine near the centre of the industrial city of Donetsk were unrecognisable. Rescue workers were still searching the pit but were unsure how many men were still missing. The accident was the worst for more than a year in Ukraine's cash-strapped pits, where safety measures have taken a back seat to survival since the breakup of the Soviet Union in 1991 plunged the country into economic crisis. GD/JDP