"Four more bodies of miners have been found, but the rescue operation has been suspended due to rising methane levels…The fate of 27 miners remains unknown," Mykhailo Volynets, head of Ukraine’s Independent Union of Miners, told RIA Novosti.
Volynets earlier said there were 207 miners underground when an explosion occurred 1,230 meters (over 4,000 feet) below the surface at the Zasyadko mine on Wednesday.
The DPR authorities, however, have put the number of workers who were underground at the time of the explosion at 230.
Earlier in the day, a source in the Russian law enforcement agencies told RIA Novosti that 198 people, including 15 injured and one dead have already been brought to the surface while the fate of 32 mine workers remained unknown.
A spokesperson for the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic's coal ministry stated that "several" bodies have been found in Zasyadko.
The Zasyadko coal mine in Donetsk was established in 1958. On November 18, 2007, a methane explosion at the Zasyadko mine killed over 100 workers, making it the worst tragedy of its kind in the history of Ukraine.
