Turkey..a new death toll from the mine explosion and attempts to rescue stranded workers

Turkey announced that the death toll in the coal mine explosion in the Bartin region (in the north of the country) has risen to 28, while rescuers are trying to retrieve the workers stranded at the site, amid the mobilization of state agencies and instructions to start an investigation into the circumstances.

Turkish Health Minister Fahrettin Koca said that the number of those who died had risen to 28, and 11 miners were suffering from injuries, some of them critical.

Interior Minister Suleiman Soylu had announced that the number of workers trapped in the mine was 15, and that search and rescue operations were still continuing, as rescue and search teams had succeeded in rescuing 58 so far.

“We are facing a really sad picture,” Soylu added, who went to the site of the explosion with Turkish Energy Minister Fatih Donmez. For his part, Donmez stated that “according to the first observations, a gas explosion occurred.”

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is scheduled to go to the region to supervise search and rescue work, and Turkish media reported that 3 prosecutors were assigned to investigate the circumstances of this explosion. Erdogan wrote a series of tweets on Friday evening, saying, “We hope that the loss of life will not be greater, and that our miners will be rescued.”

Erdogan stated that all relevant institutions are working with great dedication, especially those related to search and rescue work, and that he instructed 3 ministers to go to the accident area to supervise rescue work. He confirmed that he canceled a visit to him in the state of Diyarbakir (southeast of the country), and that he will go to the region, and an emergency response unit has been established in the region, with all medical teams in the region mobilized and ambulances ready to move.

Erdogan stressed that the relevant authorities had opened an investigation to reveal the causes and circumstances of the explosion, and appointed 3 public prosecutors in this regard.