During the Easter service in Christ the Saviour's Cathedral in Moscow on the night from Saturday to Sunday, Alexy congratulated Putin on Easter (the service was also attended by Russia's Prime Minister Mikhail Fradkov and Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov). For some time the head of state and the patriarch talked one-on-one. As Alexy later said, Putin told him the details of the mine tragedy and asked the patriarch to pray for those who were not yet freed from their underground trap and wish the families of those dead to have strength to bear their grievous loss.
"Today, during a Divine Liturgy, we will be particularly recalling those who are under ground, who died and who are missing," the patriarch said.
According to the latest information, in the Taizhin mine in the town of Osinniki, Kemerovo region (the main coal-mining region of Russia in the south of western Siberia otherwise called the Kuznetsk fields) an accident took place at 6:55 a.m. local time on Saturday, leaving 40 men dead. At least 7 men may be left under the fallen rocks in the mine.
It is supposed that as a result of a methane explosion rocks caved in at a depth of more than 500 metres, at a place where a group of miners was found.
The rescue operation is continuing. Involved in it are more than 150 relief workers from para-military mine rescue units which have been sent to the site of the accident from different towns of the Kemerovo region.
On instructions of Prime Minister Mikhail Fradkov a commission has been set up to probe the causes of the accident. It is headed by Sergei Oganesyan, head of the Federal Agency for Energy. Members of the commission on Sunday morning arrived from Moscow in the Kemerovo region.
Tuesday, April 13, was declared in the Kuzbass a day of mourning for the dead. A decision to that effect was signed by regional governor Aman Tuleyev.
