Rescuers found 32 bodies of miners in the Zasyadko mine in eastern Ukraine a day after a blast ripped through the shaft, a rebel official said on Thursday.

"32 bodies of dead miners of the Zasyadko mine have been found," the emergency ministry of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic said in a statement, adding that the bodies were being raised to the surface.

Efforts were still continuing to find the one miner who was still unaccounted for.