Six people have been killed and two seriously injured in a mining accident in Kazakhstan, the country’s Emergency Situations Ministry said.
The blast occurred early on November 7 at the Abai coal mine operated by ArcelorMittal Temirtau, a Kazakh unit of the steel giant in the Central Asian country’s Karaganda region.
At the time of the blast, 64 workers were in the mine; 56 managed to get out.
"Six people died [and] two were injured," the Emergencies Ministry said in a statement.
ArcelorMittal said the accident was due to a blast of gas and coal.
A government commission headed by Emergency Situations Minister Yuri Ilyin was dispatched to the scene.
A similar accident occurred at the Abai mine in 2008, when a methane gas explosion killed 30 people and injured 14.
Mining accidents are fairly common in former Soviet countries due to lax safety practices and outdated infrastructure.