The disaster came weeks after the worst mining accident in post-Soviet Russia occurred at a nearby mine owned by the same company, Yuzhkuzbassugol, killing 110 people.

"Thirty-six people died and two are missing," a spokesman for the local branch of the emergency situations ministry told AFP following Thursday's blast.

The methane gas explosion happened deep underground during the morning shift at the Yubileinaya mine near Novokuznetsk, in west Siberia's Kemerovo region.

Officials said that 217 miners were below ground at the time.

Six of the survivors were injured, two of them seriously, while a rescue operation was under way to find the two missing miners.

At the mine's entrance an AFP reporter saw around 40 relatives tearfully awaiting news of loved ones, amid heavy rain.