Rescue teams are still searching for dozens of workers trapped at the mine, which is located in Amasra in the northeast of the country on the Black Sea coast. The explosion, which occurred in the late afternoon of Friday (14th), is already considered one of the worst industrial accidents in the country.
According to Soylu, 52 of the 110 miners working at the mine were trapped in underground tunnels located 300 and 350 meters below sea level. There are still missing.
Another 58 were rescued alive or managed to flee on their own.
According to Energy Minister Fatih Donmez, the initial hypothesis is that the detonation was caused by an accumulation of firedamp, a gas common in underground mines that consists essentially of methane.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan canceled his schedule to travel to the crash site on Saturday.
“Our wish is that the loss of life does not increase and that our miners will be able to walk safely and soundly,” he explained.
According to Turkey’s Health Minister Fahrettin Koca, 11 people were hospitalized after being rescued from the rubble.
The home secretary said he had “really sad prospects” as he visited the scene of the tragedy alongside the energy secretary.
Local television footage showed hundreds of people, many in tears, gathered in front of a damaged white building near the mine entrance.
2 of 2 An explosion at a coal mine in Turkey strands 100 workers. — Photo: Portal
An explosion at a coal mine in Turkey strands 100 workers. — Photo: Portal
Afad, Turkey’s public body in charge of disaster management, initially announced that a faulty transformer was the cause of the blast, but later corrected that information, saying it was methane gas that had exploded for “unknown” reasons.
“I do not know what happened. There was pressure all of a sudden and I couldn’t see anything,” a worker who managed to get out of the tunnels on his own told Anadolu State Agency.
Images aired on Turkish television showed paramedics administering oxygen to workers who managed to get out and then being taken to nearby hospitals.
The local governor said a team of more than 70 rescuers managed to reach a point about 250 meters underground.
“Rescue efforts are ongoing,” the provincial governor said. It is still unclear whether the teams will get closer to the workers and what would block their way.
The mayor of Amasra, Recai Cakir, noted that “almost half of the workers have been evacuated,” Turkish broadcaster NTV quotes as saying. “Most are safe, although there are a few seriously injured,” he added.
The rescue work continues into the early hours of the morning, despite the added difficulty of the lack of light.
Local prosecutors said they were treating the incident as an accident and had opened a formal investigation.
Accidents at work are common in Turkey, where strong economic development over the last decade has often come at the expense of safety standards, particularly in the construction and mining sectors.
The country suffered its deadliest mining disaster in 2014 when 301 workers died in an explosion in the western city of Soma.