A relative of a mine methane blast's victim cries at the Zasyadka mine in Donetsk, Ukraine, Sunday, Nov. 18, 2007. (Xinhua/AFP Photo) Photo Gallery>>>

    KIEV, Nov. 19 (Xinhua) -- The Emergency Situations Ministry of Ukraine has put the death toll in Sunday's coal mine explosion in eastern Ukraine at 65.

    "The death toll has climbed to 65 and the fate of 35 others is still unclear," the ministry's chief spokesman Ihor Krol said.

    "The final death toll may exceed 100," the Interfax-Ukraine news agency reported, quoting an official of the State Committee for Labour Safety on condition of anonymity.

    The anonymous official said a severe fire caused by the blast in the mine has been localized but not extinguished.

    Local authorities declared three days of mourning for dead miners in the Donetsk region from November 19.

    TV footage showed dozens of weeping relatives gathered at the mine's headquarters in Donetsk waiting for news of their loved ones.

    Ukraine's Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych rushed to the scene on Sunday and President Victor Yushchenko is expected to arrive in Donetsk on Monday.

    The methane explosion occurred at the Zasyadka mine in the Donetsk region at a depth of more than 1,000 meters at 3:11 a.m. local time (01:11 GMT) on Sunday. The Donetsk region is about 640 km southeast of the capital Kiev.

    The Zasyadko mine, one of Ukraine's largest, produces up to 10,000 tonnes of coal every day. Several deadly accidents have taken place in the coal mine in the past years.

    A gas leak at the Zasyadko mine in September 2006 killed 13 miners. In 1999 an explosion there claimed 50 lives, while in 2001 another blast claimed 55 lives.

    Ukraine's most deadly mine accident was in March 2000, when 80 miners were killed in an explosion at a colliery in the eastern region of Luhansk.

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