(20 Nov 2007)
1. Wide of exterior of funeral
2. People carrying coffin
3. Wide of people carrying coffin
4. People near wreath
5. Close up of relatives
6. Close up of women crying
7. Woman crying by open coffin
8. Close up of women crying
9. Coffin been lowered into grave
10.Wide of mine building
11.SOUNDBITE: (Russia) Sergei Tulub, Ukraine Minister of Coal Industry:
"With deep pain we say our last goodbye to our dear comrades whom we all liked so much. The treacherous and implacable nature has wrestled out the best miners from our ranks."
12. Miners looking down on funeral
13. Pan left from wide of mine building to cemetery
STORYLINE:
Workers from a blast-shattered coal mine pitched in with cemetery labourers on Tuesday to dig graves for the victims of post-Soviet Ukraine's worst coal mining disaster, which killed at least 89.
Hundreds of people paid their last tributes to the miners, while relatives wept over the bodies on the open coffins.
"With deep pain we say our last goodbye to our dear comrades whom we all liked so much. The treacherous and implacable nature has wrestled out the best miners from our ranks," said Ukraine Minister of Coal Industry Sergei Tulub.
Flags flew at half-mast nationwide and hope of finding anyone still alive underground has virtually vanished; 11 miners remain unaccounted for after the methane explosion on Sunday at the Zasyadko mine.
The blast ripped through the mine at a depth of about 1,000 metres (3,300 feet) below the surface of Donetsk, the heart of Ukraine's coal mining industry.
The Zasyadko mine, one of Ukraine's biggest and best-known, has been the site of repeated accidents in the past decade.
Ukraine's mines, regarded as among the world's most dangerous, are a key element of the country's economy.
Seventeen of the victims were buried Tuesday morning, as rescue workers in the mine continued to battle fire and fallen rock.
The bodies pulled from the area where the remaining miners were believed to be trapped were burnt, indicating that others could not have survived, the head of the Independent Trade Union of Miners, said on Monday.
Flags here also flew at half-mast, some of them decorated with black ribbons, with the Donetsk region in the middle of a three-day period of official mourning.
Tuesday was declared a day of mourning across the nation of 47 (m) million.
President Viktor Yushchenko, who visited Donetsk on Monday, ordered a government commission to investigate the accident and called for an overhaul of the coal mining sector.
More than three-quarters of Ukraine's roughly 200 coal mines are classified as dangerous because of high levels of methane, the concentration of which increases with depth. Mines must be ventilated to prevent explosions, but some rely on outdated ventilation equipment.
Ukraine's Channel 5 television reported that Zasyadko's director Yukhym Zvyahilsky said he plans to shut down the mine, but the information could not be independently confirmed.
There is growing appetite for Ukraine's rich coal reserves, particularly with natural gas prices rising.
The government has called for production to increase by one-third to 80 (m) million tons this year.
Zasyadko is one of the best-paying mines in the country, and miners say there is high competition to get hired.
One mine official said a typical miner at Zasyadko can earn around four times the country's average monthly wage of US$258 (190); maintenance workers bring home about twice the monthly average wage.
Since the Soviet collapse, more than 4,700 miners have been killed in Ukraine.
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