An explosion Wednesday at a coal mine in eastern Ukraine killed one miner and trapped 73 more underground, according to the official news agency of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic, DAN.
Preliminary information indicates the explosion at the Zasyadko mine in the Donetsk region was caused by methane gas.
“This did not happen because of shelling,” an emergency services official told DAN.
Dozens of miners were killed and injured in a methane explosion in the same mine in 2007.
Donetsk and the neighboring Luhansk region are at the center of a months-long conflict between pro-Russia separatists and Ukrainian government forces.
A shaky ceasefire is currently in place in the region.