The death toll after an explosion in a coal mine in Turkey’s northern Bartin province on Friday has reached 41, Turkish president Tayyip Erdogan said on Saturday.
Desperate relatives had waited all night in the cold outside the state-owned TTK Amasra Muessese Mudurlugu mine in the town of Amasra, in the Black Sea coastal province of Bartin, hoping for news.
There were 110 miners working in the shaft when the explosion occurred on Friday evening.
President Erdogan arrived at the scene on Saturday afternoon and said the body of one missing miner had been reached, confirming 41 were killed.
He was flanked by officials, miners and rescuers as he vowed to bring an end to mining disasters.
“We don’t want to see deficiencies or unnecessary risks,” Mr Erdogan said, adding an investigation would reveal if anyone was responsible for the blast.
Interior minister Suleyman Soylu said earlier on Saturday 11 were injured and in hospital, while 58 others managed to get out of the mine on their own or were rescued unharmed.
Energy minister Fatih Donmez said rescue efforts are almost complete. Earlier he had said a fire was still burning in the mine’s gallery where more than a dozen miners had been trapped.
Work to isolate and cool the fire continues, he said.
The minister earlier said that preliminary assessments indicated the explosion was likely to have been caused by firedamp, which is a reference to flammable gases found in coal mines.
A miner who works the day shift said he saw the news and hurried to the site to help with the rescue.
Celal Kara (40), said: “We saw a frightful scene, it cannot be described, it’s very sad.
“They’re all my friends… they all had dreams.”
Turkey’s president Recep Tayyip Erdogan is expected to visit Amasra on Saturday.
He said three prosecutors had been assigned to investigate the incident.
“Our hope is that the loss of life does not increase further, that our miners are saved,” Mr Erdogan said in a statement. “All our efforts are geared in that direction.”
In Turkey’s worst mine disaster, a total of 301 people died in 2014 in a fire inside a coal mine in the town of Soma, in western Turkey. — AP