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Turkey mine explosion leaves several dead and 300 trapped underground Turkey mine blast reportedly leaves several dead and hundreds trapped
(35 minutes later)
A fire in a coal mine in Turkey's western province of Manisa has killed 20 miners, a local lawmaker said, and rescue workers said as many as 300 more may still be trapped. Efforts were under way on Tuesday night to rescue up to 300 miners who were trapped underground following an explosion and fire in Turkey which is also feared to have killed several of their colleagues.
MP Muzaffer Yurttas told broadcaster NTV that the bodies of 20 workers, believed to have died from suffocation and burns, had been retrieved from the mine in the town of Soma, and that at least another 20 workers had been taken to hospital. As rescue teams made their way from neighbouring regions, fresh air was being pumped into the mine in the town of Soma, around 75 miles north-east of the Aegean coastal city of Izmir.
Tamer Kucukgencay, chairman of the regional labour union, said: "They are pumping oxygen into the mine, but the fire is still burning. They say it is an electrical fault but it could be that coal is burning as well." Twenty people were initially rescued from the mine, where a power distribution unit was said to have exploded, leaving between 200 and 300 workers underground.
Turkey's energy minister, Taner Yildiz, said that a fire had been triggered by an electrical fault and that workers had been killed, but declined to say how many. The accident occurred just over a mile deep in the mine, according to Turkey's NTV television, which reported that ambulances were seen entering and leaving the area.
The blast happened during a change in shifts, leading to uncertainty over the exact number of workers still in the mine, labour union officials said. "They are pumping oxygen into the mine, but the fire is still burning. They say it is an electrical fault but it could be that coal is burning as well," Tamer Kucukgencay, chairman of the regional labour union, told Reuters by telephone.
Nurettin Akcul, national head of the Turkish Mineworkers' Union, told CNN Turk that an unknown number were still trapped after the blast, which he said happened around 2 km below ground. The head of the Turkish Mineworkers' Union, Nurettin Akcul, said that five workers had been killed in the blast.
Mehmet Bahattin Atci, mayor of Soma, in the province of Manisa, said 200-300 workers were still inside following the explosion. The head of the local fire service also told Turkish television that around 300 workers were still trapped. Turkey's energy minister, Taner Yildiz, said a number of miners had died but refused to give an exact number, telling reporters: "It is a serious accident."
Mining accidents are common in Turkey, which is plagued by poor safety conditions. Turkey's worst mining disaster was a 1992 gas explosion that killed 270 workers near the Black Sea port of Zonguldak. "Our priority is to reach our miner brothers … any figure we give could well be wrong."
Mining accidents are common in Turkey, which is plagued by poor safety conditions. The country's worst mining disaster was a 1992 gas explosion that killed 270 workers near the Black Sea port of Zonguldak.
An administrator in Soma, Mehmet Bahattin Atci, told reporters that 20 people were rescued from the mine but one later died in the hospital.
Television footage showed dozens of fellow workers and family members gathering outside the hospital in Soma, a coal-mining community in Turkey's western province of Manisa.