The country’s president says forty-one people have died following an explosion in a coal mine in northern Turkey.
More than 20 hours after Friday’s fatal explosion, the search for the last unaccounted-for body ends. The interior minister had earlier said that 58 miners who were inside when the blast occurred were either saved or managed to escape on their own.
Ten patients were still hospitalized, according to Suleyman Soylu, and one was released. At the time of the incident on Friday, around 110 individuals were inside the mine, with over half of them at a depth of more than 300m (984ft).
To try to find survivors, rescue teams had been excavating through rocks all night. At the mine in Amasra, on the Black Sea coast, rescuers could be seen arriving with blackened and sleep-deprived miners.
Additionally, there were relatives and friends of the missing at the mine, awaiting word on their loved ones.
Along with other ministers, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has been at the scene in the province of Bartin, and he has announced that the last person still missing has been found dead.
Authorities stated that Turkish prosecutors have begun an inquiry into the explosion’s cause, although early findings suggested that firedamp—a word used to describe methane producing an explosive mixture in coal mines—was to blame.
It is thought to have happened at a depth of about 300 meters. According to Mr. Soylu, 49 individuals were working in the “risky” area between 300 and 350 meters down at the time.
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There were some partial collapses inside the mine, but there were no active flames, and the ventilation was functioning well, according to Energy Minister Fatih Donmez.
Recai Cakir, the mayor of Amasra, claimed that many of the survivors had sustained “severe injuries.” We don’t know exactly what happened, but there was dust and smoke, according to one worker who made it out on his own.
State-owned Turkish Hard Coal Enterprises is the owner of the mine. 301 persons perished in Turkey’s deadliest coal mining accident in 2014 after an explosion in the western town of Soma.