(Reuters) – A seismic event sparked a fire and halted operations at the Alardinskaya mine in southwestern Siberia, Russian officials and news agencies said on Monday.
Russia’s ministry of emergency services said that 120 miners have been evacuated from the mine in Russia’s vast coal region, the Kuznetsk Basin known as Kuzbass, with two of them requiring medical assistance.
Russia’s RIA and TASS state news agencies reported, citing regional prosecutor’s office, that a seismic event had likely sparked the fire, which has yet to be contained.
The Alardinskaya mine is part of the Raspadskaya coal mine, and has production capacity of 3 million metric tons of coal per year, RIA agency reported.
The Interfax news agency reported, citing a Raspadskaya representative, that operations have been suspended at the mine.
(Reporting by Lidia Kelly in Melbourne; Editing by Michael Perry)
