DONETSK, UKRAINE--Ukrainian emergency rescue workers on Sunday began pulling up hundreds of miners trapped in a pit that lost power when a shell hit a regional electric substation.
The accident occurred in rebel-controlled Donetsk city's Zasyadko coal mine -- one of eastern Europe's largest and currently operating in the middle of a war zone.
A spokesman for the local coal miners' union told AFP that 331 miners had been working in the shaft when it lost power on Sunday afternoon.
"The power went back up at 3:31 pm and they started pulling up the miners in groups," Independent Ukrainian Miners Union chairman Mykhailo Volynets told AFP.
"They have pulled out more than 150 people so far," he said by telephone.
Zasyadko employs 10,000 people when fully operational and has been beset by problems in the past.
A 2007 disaster at the site claimed the lives of more than 100 people and remains post-Soviet Ukraine's worst industrial accident.
The pro-rebel Donetsk News Agency earlier said on its website that 390 miners had been working in the pit when the accident occurred.
The nine-month east Ukrainian war between pro-Russian militants and government forces has claimed more than 4,700 lives.
AFP
