Sat 15 October 2022:
At least 40 people were killed in a coal mine explosion in northern Turkey while rescuers worked to bring dozens of other trapped victims to the surface.
The blast occurred on Friday at the state-owned TTK Amasra Muessese Mudurlugu mine in the town of Amasra, in the Black Sea coastal province of Bartin.
Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu said Saturday that 40 miners were confirmed dead. Eleven were injured and hospitalized, while 58 others managed to get out of the mine on their own or were rescued unharmed. The status of one remaining miner was unclear.
Energy Minister Fatih Donmez said rescue efforts were almost complete. Earlier he had said that a fire was still burning in the mine’s gallery where more than a dozen miners had been trapped. Work to isolate and cool the fire continued, he said.
Preliminary assessments indicated that the explosion was likely caused by firedamp, which is a reference to flammable gases found in coal mines, Donmez said overnight.
Video footage shows miners emerging blackened and bleary-eyed accompanied by rescuers at the facility in Amasra, on the Black Sea coast.
“Fifty-eight of our miners were able to come out unharmed. We estimate that 15 of our miners are [trapped] below and we are trying to rescue them,” Suleyman Soylu Turkish interior minister told reporters at the scene.
The explosion is believed to have occurred at around 300m deep. Some 49 people had been working in the “risky” zone between 300 and 350m (985 to 1,150ft) underground, Soylu said.
Energy Minister Fatih Donmez, who went to Amasra after the blast, said a preliminary assessment indicated the explosion was likely caused by firedamp – a reference to flammable gases found in coal mines.
Several rescue teams were dispatched to the area, including from neighbouring provinces, Turkey’s disaster management 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 not increase further, that our miners will be found alive,” Erdogan said in a tweet.
“All of our efforts are aimed in this direction.”
In 2014, 301 people were killed in Turkey’s deadliest coal mining disaster, which occurred in the western town of Soma.
SOURCE: INDEPENDENT PRESS AND NEWS AGENCIES
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