Coalmine fire kills Russian & Ukrainian

A fire in a coalmine has killed one Russian and one Ukrainian on the Arctic island of Spitsbergen. Twenty-nine other miners were evacuated by rescuers when the fire broke out in the Russian settlement of Barentsburg.

The fire has been extinguished and the causes are being investigated.

According to a 1920 treaty, the Svalbard archipelago belongs to Norway, but any country that signed the agreement can exploit its natural resources. At the moment only Russia and Norway exploit this right.