A search continues for 12 miners who are missing after an explosion in a Ukraine coal mine. Rescuers now hold little hope for their survival, according to the press-office of the Emergency Ministry of Ukraine. Nine miners are believed to be stuck in an elevator cage, and three are under rubble.

As UNIAN reported earlier, 37 workers were trapped deep underground in the Karl Marx mine in Yenakiyevo city eastern Ukraine when a massive blast tore through the colliery on Sunday.

24 of them were rescued by emergency workers and the body of another miner was found among debris.

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An investigation is under way as to why the workers were in the mine, because a safety watchdog had ordered the colliery to cease production just two days before the explosion.