A total of 38 miners were killed and another seven injured in a Siberian coal mine methane blast Thursday morning, Russia's Emergency Situations Ministry reported.

The blast hit the Yubileinaya mine in the Kemerovo Region at 7:40 a.m. Moscow time (0340 GMT), when 217 miners were working underground with up to 40 near the blast center, Russian news agencies reported.

"Rescuers found the bodies of the killed miners ... The bodies will be brought to the surface soon," Veronika Smolskaya, spokeswoman of the Russian Emergencies Ministry, was quoted by the Itar-Tass news agency as saying.

According to preliminary estimates, "there are no more people inside," she added.

Of the 194 workers and 23 specialists of the mine's monitoring service underground, 179 were rescued, including the seven injured, one of whom is in a grave condition, the emergencies department of the Kemerovo region said.

Russian President Vladimir Putin phoned the Kemerovo Governor Aman Tuleyev, demanding that the owners of coal mines should "strictly abide by the rules of industrial safety," the press service of the regional administration said.

The president expressed his heartfelt condolences to the families of the victims.

Tuleyev said the region will mourn the victims at the Yubileinaya coal mine on Saturday.

"Flag will be flying at half mast on Saturday, all entertainment will be cancelled; the television broadcasting schedules will be adjusted accordingly," Tuleyev said.

Local prosecutors said that they had opened an inquiry into the possibility of a breach of safety rules at the mine.

The families of the victims will receive one million rubles (38700 U.S. dollars) compensation money each, the press service of mine owner Yuzhkuzbassugol said.

The Yubileinaya mine, jointly owned by Russia's largest underground mining company, the Yuzhkuzbassugol Company, and the second biggest steel maker Evraz Group, is located in the city of Novokuznetsk.

A recent deadly methane explosion killed 110 miners at the Ulyanovskaya mine, which also belongs to the Yuzhkuzbassugol company, on March 19 this year.

Investigation indicated that the March explosion was caused by an unauthorized shutdown of methane sensors in the mine, which was seen as an attempt to increase production by ignoring the reality of methane existing underground.