Published: April 30, 2019 |

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Seventeen people have been killed in an accident at a coal mine in eastern Ukraine, officials say.

The bodies of all the miners have been pulled from the shaft, Leonid Pasechnik, leader of the Russian-backed breakaway province Luhansk, wrote on Twitter.

A day of mourning is planned in the region for Monday.

Initial reports indicate a methane explosion caused part of the Yurivka mine to collapse.

The mine lies in Luhansk, in the disputed eastern part of Ukraine.

Luhansk and another region, Donetsk, have been controlled by pro-Russian separatist rebels following the start of a conflict with Ukrainian government forces in 2014.

Ukrainian authorities have no official access to the area. Russian emergency teams are reported to be helping with the rescue operation.

Source: The Australian

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