An explosion inside a coal mine in northern Turkey resulted in the deaths of two miners and at least 20 injured, the Turkish Health Minister said. Fahrettin Koca. An investigation has been opened into the cause of the explosion in the TTK Amasra Muessese Mudurlugu in the city of Amasra, in the coastal province of Bartin, on the Black Sea. According to the miners’ union Maden-Isquoted by the Turkish media, it was an accumulation of gas that caused the accident.
Several rescue teams were dispatched to the area, including from neighboring provinces, Turkey’s disaster management agency Afad said. The mayor of Amasra, Recai Cakir, told on television that there were 87 workers inside the mine at the time of the explosion. But there are conflicting reports on the number of people still trapped.
According to the governor Bartin Nurtac Arslan, 49 people are waiting to be brought to the surface, while the Maden-Is union reported that 35 people are still trapped. Arslan specified that five people are 350 meters underground and another 44 are in another area of the mine, 300 meters deep.
“Our rescue efforts continue, 12 injured have been rescued,” the governor continued. The Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdoganhas sent its energy and interior ministers to the scene, according to the state agency Anadolu.
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by our correspondent Rosalba Castelletti
Accidents at work are frequent in Turkey, where the strong economic development of the last decade has often come to the detriment of safety regulations, particularly in the construction and mining sectors. The most serious accident occurred in Soma in 2014: 301 miners were killed in a coal mine after an explosion and fire that caused a well to collapse.