Istanbul: Rescuers desperately searched for signs of life on Saturday after a methane blast at a coal mine in northern Turkey killed at least 25 people and trapped dozens of others hundreds of metres underground.
Updating the death toll, Health Minister Fahrettin Koca also tweeted that 11 others pulled out alive were being treated in hospital after one of Turkey’s deadliest industrial accidents in years struck Friday at sunset.
“We are facing a truly regretful situation,” Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu told reporters earlier after urgently flying to the small coal mining town of Amasra on Turkey’s Black Sea coast.
“In all, 110 of our brothers were working (underground). Some of them came out on their own, and some of them were rescued.”
Soyli also confirmed early reports that nearly 50 miners remained trapped in two separate areas between 300 and 350 metres (985 to 1,150 feet) below ground.
Television images showed anxious crowds — some with tears in their eyes — congregating around a damaged white building near the entrance to the pit in search of news for their friends and loved ones.
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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.
Television images showed paramedics giving oxygen to the miners who had climbed out and then rushing them to the nearest hospitals.
