Today saw the start of the funerals for the miners who died in the northern Turkey coal mine accident, where the death toll has now reached at least 41.
In the town of Amasra, in the Black Sea coastal province of Bartin, anxious relatives had waited all night in the cold outside the state-owned Turkish Hard Coal Enterprise’s (TTK) mine, hoping for news. At the time of the explosion yesterday, 110 miners were working several hundred metres underground.
Their wait turned to devastation by noon.
The funeral of the miner Selcuk Ayvaz, whose coffin was draped in the red and white Turkish flag, was attended by women who sobbed. Aziz Kose, a 28-year-old miner, recently held his newborn child. The majority of them were from working-class homes and went underground to work in coal mines.
When President Recep Tayyip Erdogan arrived on the scene, he announced that one missing miner’s body had finally been located and confirmed that 41 people had died.
Erdogan said he believed in “fate” as he promised to put an end to mining disasters while being accompanied by officials, miners, and rescuers.
Erdogan stated that there shouldn’t be any flaws or extra dangers, adding that the results of the probe would determine who was in charge of the explosion. The 22-year-funeral old’s prayers were later joined by him in a village where, according to Turkish media, three other miners were also being remembered.
Five of the eleven hospitalised injured patients are in critical condition, but 58 other miners were either rescued unharmed or managed to escape the mine on their own.
Rescue attempts, according to Energy Minister Fatih Donmez, have been finished. He had earlier stated that there was a fire raging in a location where more than a dozen stranded miners were.
Donmez said tonight that preliminary analyses suggested that the explosion was probably brought on by firedamp, a term for the combustible gases common in coal mines.
Three prosecutors were looking into the explosion.
A day shift miner claimed that after hearing the news, he hastened to the scene to assist with the rescue.
Celal Kara, 40, stated, “We saw a horrifying image, it cannot be explained, it is extremely terrible. Kara, a miner for 14 years, told The Associated Press after leaving the mine, his face smeared in soot, “They’re all my buddies… they all had aspirations.”
Ambulances were on standby at the site.
The area has received assistance from rescue teams, including those from neighbouring provinces, according to AFAD, Turkey’s disaster management organisation. The mine’s entrance, which is surrounded by woodlands, began to emit dark smoke.
An employee from TTK who works in mining informed the channel NTV that his team of rescuers and workers’ compensation experts arrived at the scene yesterday. Ismail Cetin said they went down into the mine and walked about 2. 5 kilometres with their kit and stretchers.
He referred to the nine dead they found as “mine martyrs.”
The world over expressed its condolences to Turkey. Despite recent extremely bad relations between the two neighbours, Greece’s prime minister offered rescue aid.
Separately, Turkish police announced in a statement that 12 persons will face legal repercussions for allegedly posting inflammatory information about the mine explosion on social media in an effort to foment hatred.
The biggest mine accident to ever happen in Turkey occurred in 2014, when a fire broke out within a coal mine in the western town of Soma, leaving 301 miners dead. Five months later, a coal mine flooded, resulting in the deaths of 18 miners in the central Karaman region.
Left-leaning trade union leader from DISK said in a statement that they were “sad and indignant” since deaths were avoidable and the union’s safety recommendations were disregarded.
Arzu Cerkezoglu, the leader of DISK, referred to yesterday’s explosion as a “massacre” and claimed some measures were disregarded for financial gain even though additional inspections were required in the wake of the Soma catastrophe.
41 dead after explosion at Turkish coal mine
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