<p>The Ukrainian emergency ministry raised the toll from 16 to 18 from an explosion early yesterday at the Sukhodolskaya-Vostochnaya coal mine in the eastern Lugansk region.<br /><br />Eight miners were still missing today after that blast deep in the mine, likely caused by a buildup of deadly methane gas, while two remained hospitalised with serious burns.<br /><br />The death toll from a separate accident hours later also rose to seven, and four miners remained missing today after a mine headframe collapsed at the Bazhanova pit in the town of Makiyivka in the neighbouring Donetsk region.</p>.<p>The twin disasters were the country's worst mining accidents since more than 100 miners died in a mine explosion in 2007.</p>.<p>The blast at the Sukhodolskaya-Vostochnaya mine rang out at around 2 am yesterday, in an air passage more than 900 metres deep in the mine, where 28 miners were working at the time, the local emergency ministry said.</p>.<p>Today, "eight miners remained trapped in the disaster zone," the ministry said, without indicating whether they were likely to be alive.</p>.<p>Rescuers were removing gas from an emergency access tunnel into the mine, in order to go down in search of the missing miners, a spokeswoman for the Lugansk regional administration told AFP.<br /><br />But she said there was little hope of finding more miners alive.</p>.<p>"I can't say anything about this. It is unlikely," said Albina Kosheleva, the Lugansk regional administration spokeswoman.</p>.<p>Two miners pulled from the debris and hospitalised in the city's burns unit remained in "an extremely serious condition, on the verge of life and death," she added. A third survivor died in hospital yesterday. </p>
<p>The Ukrainian emergency ministry raised the toll from 16 to 18 from an explosion early yesterday at the Sukhodolskaya-Vostochnaya coal mine in the eastern Lugansk region.<br /><br />Eight miners were still missing today after that blast deep in the mine, likely caused by a buildup of deadly methane gas, while two remained hospitalised with serious burns.<br /><br />The death toll from a separate accident hours later also rose to seven, and four miners remained missing today after a mine headframe collapsed at the Bazhanova pit in the town of Makiyivka in the neighbouring Donetsk region.</p>.<p>The twin disasters were the country's worst mining accidents since more than 100 miners died in a mine explosion in 2007.</p>.<p>The blast at the Sukhodolskaya-Vostochnaya mine rang out at around 2 am yesterday, in an air passage more than 900 metres deep in the mine, where 28 miners were working at the time, the local emergency ministry said.</p>.<p>Today, "eight miners remained trapped in the disaster zone," the ministry said, without indicating whether they were likely to be alive.</p>.<p>Rescuers were removing gas from an emergency access tunnel into the mine, in order to go down in search of the missing miners, a spokeswoman for the Lugansk regional administration told AFP.<br /><br />But she said there was little hope of finding more miners alive.</p>.<p>"I can't say anything about this. It is unlikely," said Albina Kosheleva, the Lugansk regional administration spokeswoman.</p>.<p>Two miners pulled from the debris and hospitalised in the city's burns unit remained in "an extremely serious condition, on the verge of life and death," she added. A third survivor died in hospital yesterday. </p>