A methane explosion killed 38 people at a Siberian coal mine Thursday, just weeks after 110 miners died in a blast at a neighboring mine operated by the same company.

Rescue workers halted work as no more miners were thought to be missing at the Yubileynaya pit in the Kemerovo region of western Siberia, emergency officials said.

Miners' relatives, many of them in tears, scoured a list of the dead hanging on a wall at the mine's headquarters.

"They will start bringing the bodies to the surface now," said one woman with tears welling in her eyes. "They say they have identified everyone."

The blast ripped through the mine at 07:40 Moscow time (03:40 GMT) when 217 people were below ground.

Russia's industrial safety watchdog said its inspectors had twice applied to have the Yubileynaya mine closed for safety violations, including in the shaft at the center of the blast, but they were overruled by local courts.

Miners with coal stained faces smoked nervously as a soft drizzle fell on the mine, a collection of rusting and poorly painted Soviet-era buildings surrounded by wooded hills.

Kemerovo Governor Aman Tuleyev declared tomorrow a day of mourning in the region. President Vladimir Putin, on a visit to Western Europe, expressed his condolences.

The Yubileynaya mine, which opened in 1966 and employs around 1,000 people, is about 40 km away from the Ulyanovskaya pit where 110 people died in March.

That was Russia's worst mining accident since the fall of the Soviet Union and triggered a government inquiry that pointed to poor safety standards.

Both mines are operated by Yuzhkuzbassugol, a company that is 50 percent owned by its management, which has operational control, and 50 percent by steelmaker Evraz Group. Yuzhkuzbassugol declined immediate comment on Thursday's blast.

Evraz shares were down 2.9 percent in trading on the London stock exchange. Roman Abramovich, the billionaire owner of Britain's Chelsea soccer club, has a 41 percent stake in Evraz through his Millhouse investment vehicle.

Russia's industrial safety agency, RosTekhNadzor, said it had started an investigation and that Yuzhkuzbassugol could have its licences to operate Yubileynaya and other mines withdrawn.

"A working commission is at the mine. A decision on the recall of licences can only be taken in accordance with the results of the commission's work," agency spokeswoman Svetlana Vinokurova said.

The pay structure in the Russian coal industry, where miners earn bonuses based on their output, encourages workers to cut corners on safety, said a mining trade union official.

The Kemerovo region is the hub of Russia's coal mining industry. Around 3,000 km east of Moscow, the area is a sprawling network of soot-stained industrial towns built around mines and metal works spewing out acrid smoke.

(China Daily via agencies May 25, 2007)