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 There were 31 miners still trapped in the massive Zasyadko mine more than 24 hours after the blast early Sunday, the Emergency Situations Ministry said. More than 360 miners made it alive to the surface in the eastern city of Donetsk, officials said.
The blast ripped through an area more than 3,300 feet underground in the mine, one of Ukraine's largest and deepest. With the search for survivors still under way, the Donetsk region began three days of official mourning for the victims, while harrowing tales about the incident emerged.
Vitaliy Kvitkovsky, a miner in his 30s, said he had to walk over the bodies of dead colleagues to climb to the surface.
"The temperature increased sharply, and there was so much dust that I couldn't see anything. ... So I was moving by touch over dead bodies along the rail track," Kvitkovsky said in footage broadcast on Ukraine's Channel 5 television.
On Sunday, dozens of teary-eyed relatives gathered at the mine's headquarters, waiting anxiously for news on their loved ones. As grim-faced officials emerged to announce the names of the workers found dead, the relatives broke into sobs and cries. Some fainted.
The deadliest accident in Ukraine's coal industry in at least seven years highlighted the dangers of the industry in the country.
President Viktor Yushchenko accused his Cabinet on Sunday of not doing enough to reform coal mining, and ordered a panel to investigate the accident and bring those responsible to account.
Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych, a native of the mining region, visited the site about 450 miles southeast of Kiev, pledging to help victims' families.
Yanukovych, a political rival of Yushchenko, suggested the disaster was not caused by safety violations or human error, saying a safety watchdog had reported that miners were working in accordance with norms.
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 "This accident has proven once again that a human is powerless before nature," he said.
Twenty-eight of the 367 miners evacuated were hospitalized, emergency authorities said.
Experts say Ukraine's mines are dangerous largely because they are so deep, typically running more than 3,280 feet underground. In comparison, most European coal beds lie at a depth of 1,640 to 1,970 feet.
Methane is a natural byproduct of mining, and its concentration increases with depth. More than 75 percent of Ukraine's some 200 coal mines are classified as dangerous due to high methane concentrations. Mines must be ventilated to prevent explosions, but some rely on outdated ventilation equipment, officials said.
The blast was the deadliest mine accident in Ukraine since an explosion at the Barakova mine in the neighboring Luhansk region killed 81 miners in March 2000.
The Zasyadko mine has been plagued by disaster.
Last year, a blast killed 13 workers. In 2002, an explosion killed 20 and 54 died in a similar explosion in 2001. In May 1999, 50 miners were killed in a methane and coal dust blast there.
Since the 1991 Soviet collapse, more than 4,700 miners in Ukraine have been killed. For every 1 million tons of coal brought to the surface in Ukraine, three miners lose their lives, according to official data.
Despite the dangers, there is growing appetite for Ukraine's rich coal reserves, particularly amid rising natural gas prices. The government has called for production to be increased by a third to 80 million tons this year.
[Associated
Press; By SERGEI CHUZAVKOV]
Copyright 2007 The Associated
Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
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