Moscow: At least 13 miners were killed and 23 injured in a coal mine blast in Russia's western Siberian region of Kuzbass today (Oct 28, 2004), media reports said.

They said five miners were still missing from the site of the blast, which is 3,000 kms east of Moscow.

There were 103 miners in the shaft when the methane blast occurred in Listvyazhnaya coal mine in the town of Belov in Kemerovo during maintenance work at 5.45 Moscow time (0615 IST), RIA Novosti reported. Initial reports had put the number at 240.

"Besides the injured, 67 miners were evacuated on the surface," a rescue official of the Emergency Situations Ministry was quoted as saying by the agency.

Rescue workers were searching for more survivors, reports said. Accidents are common in the Russian coal mining industry.

In April this year 45 miners were killed in another Kemerevo 9 and a flooded mineshaft last October trapped 11 miners underground for a week in a mine near Ukraine.