Eight others were critically injured after an explosion pierced a mine hundreds of meters underground in Amasya.
An explosion at a coal mine in northern Turkey has killed at least 28 people, Turkish officials said, while rescuers tried to bring dozens of others trapped inside the mine to the surface.
The blast happened on Friday at the state-owned TTK Amasra Muessese Mudurlugu mine in the city of Amasra, in the Black Sea coastal province of Bartin.
Health Minister Fahrettin Koca said on Twitter on Friday that 28 people had died in the incident.
Eleven of the 58 rescued miners are still being treated in hospitals, Koca said, adding that it’s not clear how many people are still trapped due to the blast that occurred, as 110 people were working inside.
Energy Minister Fatih Donmez, who traveled to Amasra after the blast, said a preliminary assessment indicated the blast was likely caused by firedamp – an indication of combustible gases found in coal mines.
Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu also traveled to Amasra to coordinate the rescue operation. Soylu didn’t want to give a number for those still trapped.
Several rescue teams have been dispatched to the area, including from neighboring provinces, Turkey’s civil protection agency AFAD said.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said he would cancel all his other arrangements and fly to the scene of the accident on Saturday.
“Our hope is that the loss of life will stop increasing, that our miners will be found alive,” Erdogan said in a tweet.
“All our efforts are aimed in this direction.”
The blast occurred 300 meters (985 feet) below the mine entrance at around 15:15 GMT, the Bartin governor’s office said.
Television images showed hundreds of people, some in tears, gathered around a damaged white building near the entrance to the pit.
Previously, Turkey’s Maden-Is miners’ union had attributed the blast to a build-up of methane gas, but other officials said it was premature to draw any conclusions about the cause of the accident.
In Turkey’s worst mining disaster in 2014, a total of 301 people died in a fire in a coal mine in the western Turkish city of Soma.