Kiev, April 27
The death toll from a coal mine blast in a separatist eastern region of Ukraine rose to 17 on Saturday, rebel authorities said.
The gas blast on Thursday ripped through the mine in Yurievka village in the self-proclaimed republic of Lugansk, which broke away from Kiev in 2014 and is run by Moscow-backed rebels.
“The tragedy took the life of 17 miners,” Leonid Pasechnik, the head of the unrecognised Lugansk republic, said on Twitter.
He added that the bodies of all the miners that died have been recovered.
Earlier the death toll accounted to 13, with another four people missing.
