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 Mine officials said the explosion was not linked to fighting at
the nearby frontline in the war between Moscow-backed rebels and
Ukraine government forces. Kiev accused the separatists of holding
up the rescue effort by restricting access.
Outside the gates of the Zasyadko mine, about 30 relatives clamoured
for information about any survivors. A miner injured in the blast
mingled with the crowd, his face covered in scratches and one arm
hanging motionless by his side, the result of a broken collarbone.
The miner, Sergei Baldayev, said five bodies had so far been
retrieved from the area of the blast, in a shaft deep underground.
The sister of one miner who was in the pit at the time of the
explosion, Alexei Novoselsky, stood in tears.
"Tell me, are there survivors? Why are you concealing the truth,"
she said as a local rescue services employee tried to calm her.
Donetsk has been the scene of heavy fighting between Moscow-backed
separatist rebels, who control the region, and forces loyal to the
government in Kiev. A ceasefire has sharply reduced the violence in
the past week.
 The neighbourhood around the mine has come under artillery fire,
with fragments from Grad rockets visible on surrounding roads, but
mine officials said the explosion was unrelated to the fighting and
most likely caused by gas.
In Kiev, Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseny Yatseniuk said rescue
workers had been dispatched by the central authorities, "but the
Russian terrorists did not let them reach the scene of the
accident," he said, using a term commonly used by Kiev to describe
the separatists.
Figures given by medical workers at the scene, miners and a mine
official speaking on condition of anonymity pointed to there being
about 50 miners still underground.
Earlier on Tuesday, some officials had said more than 30 people were
killed in the early morning blast, although later officials would
not confirm that figure. Rescue services were working to reach the
epicentre of the blast, in a shaft deep underground, they said.
Asked what were the chances of trapped miners surviving, a medical
worker said: "It's getting smaller and smaller all the time, because
of the methane, the hot air, burns to the airways."
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She said two buses had been brought to the mine in preparation for
carrying away the bodies of the dead.
HISTORY
The mine has a history of fatal accidents in the 57 years it has
been operating. An explosion at Zasyadko in 2007 killed 106 people.
A cemetery next to the pit holds the graves of many miners killed in
the past.
"When there's an accident, we bury them all here," said the head of
security at the shaft where Tuesday's blast happened, who did not
give his name. "Coal is a costly business."
A welder at the mine, who gave his name as Oleg, said outside the
entrance: "I've been down the pit for 23 years, and this is the
fourth explosion that I can recall. If they didn't get them out
straight away, then later they will only retrieve bodies. An
explosion is a terrible thing."
The Zasyadko coal mine produced 1.4 million tonnes of coal in 2013.
The mine is in the centre of a Donbass region which is Ukraine's
industrial and coal-producing heartland.
Ukrainian coal production fell 22 percent in 2014 to 65 million
tonnes as the conflict disrupted mining operations in the region,
leading to some shortages of coal at power plants.
(Additional reporting by Lina Kushch in Donetsk, Pavel Polityuk in
Kiev and Polina Devitt and Damir Khalmetov in Moscow; Writing by
Christian Lowe; Editing by Peter Graff)
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