By Alexei Kratikov

NOVOKUZNETSK, Russia, May 25 (Reuters) The owner of the Siberian coal mine where 38 people were killed in a methane explosion announced today there was to be a management shake-up after the second fatal accident in two months.

Grieving relatives of the mine workers killed on Thursday in the Yubileynaya mine clustered outside a mortuary in the nearby city of Novokuznetsk as hospital workers brought in bodies on stretchers for identification.

In the earlier accident in March at a neighbouring mine owned by the same company, an explosion killed 110 people in Russia's deadliest mining disaster in decades. The latest accident has put safety standards under renewed scrutiny.

Russian steelmaker Evraz, which is listed on the London stock exchange and before the blast had a 50 percent stake in the mines' owner, Yuzhkuzbassugol, announced today it was taking full ownership of the company.

''We will make sure that ... safety standards are observed,'' said Alexander Abramov, a member of Evraz's board of directors.

''That will mean the most serious organisational changes, including in the (company's) management.'' No date was given for the shakeout and no details were released of any forthcoming personnel changes.

Roman Abramovich, the billionaire owner of Britain's Chelsea soccer club, has a 41 percent stake in Evraz through his Millhouse investment vehicle.

MORTUARY Both deadly accidents this year were in the Kemerovo region of western Siberia, the hub of Russia's coal mining industry.

Around 3,000 km (2,000 miles) east of Moscow, the area was industrialised by Soviet dictator Josef Stalin and is now a sprawling network of polluted industrial towns.

Outside the mortuary in Novokuznetsk, khaki tents had been pitched where relatives waited to be called into the building.

Inside, one woman could be seen sobbing and a female police officer was trying to console her.

As medical orderlies brought in one body on a stretcher, a blood-covered arm could be seen poking out from under a blanket.

On a loading bay at the back of the mortuary, a man's bloodied head stuck out of an open coffin.

Russian Orthodox priests officiated at a service for the dead in the city's Church of the Transfiguration of Christ.

Coal accounts for about 23 percent of Russian electricity production. Russia's coal industry employs about 250,000, of whom about 120,000 work underground. It is hazardous work and accidents are commonplace.

REUTERS SV HT1655