Fourteen teams of specialist emergency workers have fanned out across the mine to search for signs of life, one day after a methane gas explosion ripped through the Ulyanovskaya mine in the Siberian region, Kemerovo

Thirteen people are reported still missing after Monday's gas explosion at a coal mine in Central Siberia that killed at least 97 people. Rescuers are scouring the site for a second day, in the hopes of finding still more survivors. VOA's Lisa McAdams in Moscow reports.

Fourteen teams of specialist emergency workers have fanned out across the mine to search for signs of life, one day after a methane gas explosion ripped through the Ulyanovskaya mine in the Siberian region, Kemerovo.

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Russian Emergency Situations Minister Sergei Shoigu is overseeing rescue operations at the site. He says work is being hampered by numerous complications, including bad ventilation.

Shoigu says authorities have launched an investigation into the accident and that a criminal case has also been opened. At present, investigators looking for the cause of the blast are centering on possible violations of mining work rules.

The blast cost the company all but one of its senior managers. It serves as a grim reminder of the dilapidated state of Russia's mining industry.

Regional authorities have declared three days of mourning, later this week.