A failure of underground electric equipment and violations during drilling and blasting operations carried out before the accident could have caused the explosion in the Sukhodilska-Skhidna coal mine, Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych has said.
"Two [theories on the cause] of the tragedy are being considered. It could have been a failure of electrical equipment in the mine, or the consequences of the drilling and blasting operations carried out before the accident," the president told reporters on Friday evening, after a meeting of the state commission for investigating the reason for the explosion in the coal mine.
Yanukovych added that mine experts had assured him that the drilling and blasting operations were fulfilled strictly according to the proper procedure.
