Coal mine blast kills at least 24 in war-torn east Ukraine

DONETSK, Ukraine - A rebel-held city scarred by months of conflict in eastern Ukraine suffered more tragedy Wednesday when a methane gas explosion in a coal mine killed at least 24 workers and left nine missing.

As rescue efforts stretched past sundown, separatist authorities were accused by Ukraine's government of failing to do enough to save the lives of the miners.

The blast occurred before dawn more than 3,200 feet underground at the Zasyadko mine in the city of Donetsk in the coal-rich Donbass region. Nearly a year of bitter fighting by pro-Moscow rebels and Ukrainian troops in the east has killed more than 6,000 people.

Rebel officials said the accident was caused by the ever-present danger of methane gas, rather than artillery fire.

There were contradictory accounts of the toll of dead and missing by the rival authorities. The rebel government that controls Donetsk was slow to divulge information, while a senior official in the capital of Kiev was swift to give a death toll of 32, only to retract it several hours later.

The blast occurred as 230 workers were in the mine, and nearly 200 of them were quickly evacuated, but uncertainty lingered throughout the day about dozens of others.

Rebel officials insisted into the afternoon that only one person had died. But a slightly wounded miner who gave his name only as Sergei said that he saw five bodies being pulled out.

By nightfall, Yuliana Bedilko, a representative for the rebel-managed rescue services at the site of the accident, said 23 bodies more had been located below ground, bringing the overall number of confirmed dead to 24.

Rebel officials had said earlier that 32 workers were unaccounted for, suggesting 16 still remained trapped as of the evening.

Speaking in Kiev, Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk accused rebels of preventing a team of 60 Ukrainian rescuers from reaching the mine to provide assistance. But leading rebel representative Denis Pushilin denied that Ukrainian authorities had offered any help.

"If we truly need assistance, we will turn to Russia," Pushilin was quoted as saying by the rebel-run Donetsk News Agency.