At least 22 workers were killed and about twenty were injured this Friday after an explosion at a coal mine in northwestern Turkey, while an estimated 49 are trapped undergroundreported the Turkish government.
The accident that occurred at 6:15 p.m. local time (12:15 p.m. in Argentina) on Friday at the Amasra mine, on the Black Sea coast, left at least 22 dead, Turkish Health Minister Fahrettin Koca announced on Twitter.
Bartın’daki can kayıplarımızın sayısı maalesef 25’e ulaştı. Tedavisi süren 11 yaralımız var. 1’i ağır, 4 hastamız yoğun bakımda. 1 hastamız you served tedavi görüyor. 6 vatandaşımız uçak ambulanslarla İstanbul Başakşehir Çam ve Sakura Şehir Hastanesi Yanık Merkezine sevk edildi.
— Dr. Fahrettin Koca (@drfahrettinkoca) October 14, 2022
Rescue teams were scrambling to rescue the miners, trapped 300 to 350 meters below sea level, and according to the Interior Minister, about 49 would remain underground, of the 110 that were in the mine at the time of the explosion according to Soylu, the AFP news agency specified.
Local television showed images of hundreds of distraught people standing in front of a damaged white building near the mine entrance awaiting news of the rescues.
The explosion would have been caused by an accumulation of firedamp, a common gas in underground mines composed essentially of methaneTurkish Energy Minister Fatih Donmez said.
Afad, Turkey’s public disaster management agency, had initially announced on Twitter that a defective transformer had been the cause of the explosion, although the agency itself later ruled out this hypothesis.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan sent his interior and energy ministers to the scene to supervise rescue operations and will visit the site of the tragedy tomorrow, according to the Turkish presidency.
Bartın’ımızın Amasra ilçesinde meydana gelen maden patlamasında hayatını kaybeden kardeşlerimize Allah’tan rahmet, yakınlarına sabır niyaz ediyorum. Yaralanan kardeşlerime from acyl şifalar diliyorum.
— Recep Tayyip Erdoğan (@RTErdogan) October 14, 2022
One miner who was able to get out of the tunnels under his own power told Turkey’s news agency Analodu that “I don’t know what happened. There was sudden pressure and I couldn’t see anything.”
Local governor Recai Cakir said a team of more than 70 rescuers had managed to reach a point in the shaft some 250 meters below ground.
“The rescue efforts continue,” said the provincial governor, although It was not known at this time if the crews could get closer to the trapped workers or what was blocking their further path.
And he added that “almost half of the workers were evacuated, most are safe although there are some who are seriously injured.”
In this sense, the local authorities informed that rescue work continued into the nightdespite the added difficulty of the lack of light.
In turn, the local public prosecutor’s office said it was treating what happened as an accident and was launching a formal investigation.
