At least 41 people were killed in an explosion inside a mine in Turkey. Five people remain in serious condition, while the origin of the accident is investigated.
The accident in a coal mine in northern Turkey near the Black Sea cost the lives of 41 minersThis was confirmed today by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan at the scene of the accident.
According to the president, rescue teams were able to locate and reach the body of the last person missing from the accident on Friday.
“As a nation we are very sad”Erdogan told reporters, adding that an investigation will reveal whether anyone is responsible for the explosion, which occurred at a depth of about 300 meters.
The Turkish president has promised the families of the dead miners state financial aid.
In total, eleven miners are still hospitalized, five of them in serious conditionwhile 58 people were rescued unharmed, Turkish Interior Minister Süleyman Soylu explained.
Mustafa Turan, head of the burn unit at Çam Sakura Hospital -Istanbul Hospital-, explained to EFE by telephone that they received six injured who were transferred in medical helicopters and that one of them had to undergo emergency surgery.
“Five men are in the burn unit and their conditions are serious,” explained the doctor.
A total of 110 miners were in the Amasra mine, in the province of Bartin, at the time of the explosion, which occurred for unknown causes on Friday at 15:15.
Meanwhile, the local prosecutor has appointed three prosecutors to investigate the cause of the accident.
Turkish Energy Minister Fatih Dönmez, who also went to Amasra last night, told the media that according to the first inquiries the the disaster was caused by an explosion of grisù.
“There are several partial landslides,” he explained.
“We don’t know anything. There was dust and smoke, we couldn’t see what had happened. I went out alone. Those of us who were a bit far away only felt the pressure of the explosion, but we couldn’t see anything, ”a miner who left the pit before the rescue teams arrived told NTV.
The damaged mine belongs to the state-owned Turkish Hard Coal Enterprises.
According to the Turkish daily Evrensel, already in 2019 a report by the Court of Auditors indicated that in this well sWe were recording gas leaks with a risk of explosion.
Turkey is one of the countries in the world with the highest number of accidents in its coal and lignite mines, which unions attribute to the poor security measures in a poorly regulated and controlled sector.
The worst mining disaster in Turkey’s history occurred in 2014, when 301 people died in a fire inside the Suma minein the western part of the country.
