Rescuers pulled more dead and injured from a coal mine in western Turkey on Wednesday more than 12 hours after an explosion, bringing the death toll to 201 in the nation’s worst mining disaster for decades. The blast at the coal mine in Soma, around 120km (75 miles) northeast of the Aegean coastal city of Izmir, happened during a change in shifts on Tuesday.
‘We are worried that the death toll will rise… I have to say that our hopes are dimming in terms of the rescue efforts,’ Energy Minister Taner Yildiz told reporters at the scene. He said 787 people were inside the coal mine, which is located 155 miles from Istanbul, at the time of the accident. So far, 363 of them have been rescued. At least 80 miners were injured, including four who were in serious condition, Yildiz told reporters in Soma, as he oversaw the rescue operation involving more than 400 rescuers.
The accident occurred when the workers were preparing for a shift change, officials said, which likely raised the casualty toll because there were more miners inside the mine than usual. Yildiz said the deaths were caused by carbon monoxide poisoning and feared the toll could end up much higher than the latest count of 201 workers. The rescue effort is ‘reaching a critical stage,’ Yildiz said, with more deaths likely as time passes.
