The death toll from a methane blast at a Russian coal mine today has risen to 61, Itar-Tass news agency reported.
A spokeswoman for the Emergencies Ministry declined to comment. At least 186 miners were underground when the blast ripped through the Ulyanovskaya mine, in Siberia's Kemerovo region.
President Vladimir Putin ordered his Emergencies Minister to fly to the mine to oversee rescue efforts.
Rescue workers evacuated 86 and were trying to bring the rest to the surface.
Russian television pictures showed one miner lying motionless, his clothes black with dirt, as emergency workers transferred him into an ambulance. The mine belongs to the Yuzhkuzbassugol company, in which Russia's second-biggest steelmaker, Yevraz, holds a 50 per cent stake.
The management owns the other 50 per cent and has operational control of Yuzhkuzbassugol. Fatal explosions caused by methane are not unusual in the Kemerovo coal basin, where many mines lack modern security equipment.