Turkey reaches more bodies of mine workers in blast

Turkish rescue teams found 28 dead in a coal mine in the northern Black Sea province of Zonguldak on Thursday, Energy Minister Taner Yildiz said, three days after an underground explosion caused the mine to collapse. Some 40 miners were reported to have been working in two separate areas.

Bodies of 28 of the 30 miners were recovered in the debris of Karadon coal mine in Zonguldak that collapsed after a gas explosion on Monday, Turkey's Energy & Natural Resources Minister Taner Yildiz told reporters. 8 workers were initially reported injured. Two more workers were still underground, but Yildiz said there was little chance they were alive.

"Efforts are under way to reach the other two trapped miners," Yildiz said.

An explosion in the Karadon coal mine in the Black Sea port city of Zonguldak injured 11 miners leaving 30 others trapped on Monday. The injured miners were hospitalised.

The 30 miners were working in two separate areas at a depth of about 540 metres when the explosion ripped through the coal mine on Monday. No-one has communicated with them since. Fifteen workers were killed in another mine explosion early in March in the northwestern province of Balikesir. Turkey's worst mining disaster was in 1992 when a blast killed 270 miners near Zonguldak.


/World Bulletin/