The death toll from a coal mine explosion in northern Turkey rose to at the very least 28 people Saturday, officials said. Rescue efforts continued as a fireplace burned within the mine and desperate relatives waited for news.
There have been 110 miners working within the shaft when the explosion occurred Friday evening on the state-owned TTK Amasra Muessese Mudurlugu mine within the town of Amasra, within the Black Sea coastal province of Bartin.
Energy Minister Fatih Durmaz said efforts were continuing to achieve 15 people. Most of them are within the mine’s gallery where a fireplace remains to be burning.
“It’s not an enormous fire, but to get there safely, the fireplace and carbon monoxide gas have to be eliminated,” he told journalists at the positioning.
4 or five other miners were trapped in cave-ins, Durmaz added. The minister earlier said that preliminary assessments indicated that the explosion was likely brought on by firedamp, which is a reference to flammable gases present in coal mines.
Relatives of the miners, wrapped up against the cold, waited outside the mine overnight, desperate for any news about their family members.
Health Minister Fahrettin Koca tweeted that 28 miners were dead and 11 others were hospitalized in Bartin and Istanbul. Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu said 58 people had been rescued. Precise numbers weren’t clear.
A miner who works the day shift said he saw the news and hurried to the positioning to assist with the rescue. “We saw a frightful scene, it can’t be described, it’s very sad,” said Celal Kara, 40. “They’re all my friends… all of them had dreams,” the miner of 14 years said after exiting the mine, his face covered in soot.
Ambulances were on standby at the positioning. Rescue teams were dispatched to the realm, including from neighboring provinces, Turkey’s disaster management agency, AFAD, said.
Turkey’s president was expected to go to Amasra on Saturday.
Turkey’s worst mine disaster was in 2014, when 301 people died in a fireplace inside a coal mine within the town of Soma, in western Turkey.
The death toll from a coal mine explosion in northern Turkey rose to at the very least 28 people Saturday, officials said. Rescue efforts continued as a fireplace burned within the mine and desperate relatives waited for news.
There have been 110 miners working within the shaft when the explosion occurred Friday evening on the state-owned TTK Amasra Muessese Mudurlugu mine within the town of Amasra, within the Black Sea coastal province of Bartin.
Energy Minister Fatih Durmaz said efforts were continuing to achieve 15 people. Most of them are within the mine’s gallery where a fireplace remains to be burning.
“It’s not an enormous fire, but to get there safely, the fireplace and carbon monoxide gas have to be eliminated,” he told journalists at the positioning.
4 or five other miners were trapped in cave-ins, Durmaz added. The minister earlier said that preliminary assessments indicated that the explosion was likely brought on by firedamp, which is a reference to flammable gases present in coal mines.
Relatives of the miners, wrapped up against the cold, waited outside the mine overnight, desperate for any news about their family members.
Health Minister Fahrettin Koca tweeted that 28 miners were dead and 11 others were hospitalized in Bartin and Istanbul. Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu said 58 people had been rescued. Precise numbers weren’t clear.
A miner who works the day shift said he saw the news and hurried to the positioning to assist with the rescue. “We saw a frightful scene, it can’t be described, it’s very sad,” said Celal Kara, 40. “They’re all my friends… all of them had dreams,” the miner of 14 years said after exiting the mine, his face covered in soot.
Ambulances were on standby at the positioning. Rescue teams were dispatched to the realm, including from neighboring provinces, Turkey’s disaster management agency, AFAD, said.
Turkey’s president was expected to go to Amasra on Saturday.
Turkey’s worst mine disaster was in 2014, when 301 people died in a fireplace inside a coal mine within the town of Soma, in western Turkey.
