25 people were killed. The governor’s office of the Black Sea province Bartin announced this on Saturday evening, Turkish news agency Anadolu reported. Six injured miners were sent to Istanbul for treatment.
Dozens of other miners are said to be trapped underground in the mine in the Black Sea district of Amasra. Local media reported that firedamp probably exploded about 300 meters below the Earth’s surface. About 150 people are involved in the search and rescue operations.
number of deaths is increasing
Health Minister Fahrettin Koca had previously spoken of 22 dead and 17 injured, eight of them in critical condition. The mine is located about 300 kilometers northeast of the capital Ankara.
According to Turkish Interior Minister Süleyman Soylu, there were 110 workers in the mine at the time of the accident, 49 of them in a more vulnerable deeper part. According to the governor’s office, 36 miners were taken to safety from the accident site.
Multiple serious mining accidents in Turkey
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Twitter that he would visit the accident site on Saturday to “coordinate” rescue efforts. An investigation has been launched into the incident. The main opposition party, the social-democratic CHP, said authorities had ignored a 2019 Court of Audit report warning of the risk of a firedamp explosion at the mine.
In recent years there have been serious mining accidents in Turkey, partly due to poor safety regulations. In 2014, an explosion at a coal mine in Manisa province in the Aegean region killed a total of 301 people. (SDA)