Nicolás Maduro expressed his solidarity this Saturday with the government and the people of Turkey for the explosion in a coal mine in Bartin. At least 41 people died in the event, according to the latest official balance of victims.
In a statement released by the Foreign Ministry, the Maduro government assured that “it accompanies the Republic of Turkey in this moment of sorrow. And it regrets the irreparable loss of human lives as a result of the terrible accident that occurred in a mine, last Friday, October 14, in the city of Bartín, on the Black Sea coast.
The Foreign Ministry wished the injured a speedy recovery and sent condolences to their families. In addition, he assured that he “stands in solidarity in thought, action and prayer with the Turkish people.”
The accident occurred this Friday around 3:15 p.m. GMT in a shaft of an Amasra coal mine in Bartín, at a time when 110 miners were working and 49 of them were in the area affected by the deflagration.
The latest official balance of the Turkish authorities raises the fatalities from the explosion to 41. While the safeguarding teams managed to rescue another 58 miners unharmed, as confirmed by the Minister of the Interior, Suleyman Soylu.
In total, eleven miners are still hospitalized, five of them in serious condition.
Turkey is one of the countries in the world with the most accidents in its coal and lignite mines, which the unions blame on poor safety 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 mine in the west of the country.
