After the huge Soviet mines in the region closed in the 1990s, jobless men and boys started their own small operations, using picks and shovels to claw coal out of the mountains. Some are as young as 11, miners say.

Today, hundreds _ perhaps thousands _ of miners earn an average they say of about US$50 (euro32) a week in the mines. They haul the coal out one 150-pound sack at a time, and sell them in markets for about US$3 (euro1.80) each.

“We work for bread,” shrugged Ibrahim Almahayev, 43, nearly naked, whose face was smeared with coal dust.

Methane seeps into the hot, narrow mines. When a tunnel collapses, miners say, there is little hope for rescue. But miners feel they don’t have much choice. “We go down there because there are no jobs up here,” said Abdul Abulkasimov, 54.

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