At least 40 miners died and 28 injured after the explosion at a coal mine on Friday evening in Amasra in northwestern Turkey, according to authorities who announced on Saturday the imminent end of rescue operations.
“We have counted 40 martyrs in total,” announced Interior Minister Süleyman Soylu, who went there in the northwest of the country overnight with several members of the government. “Fifty-eight miners were rescued, by themselves or thanks to help,” said Mr. Soylu, 28 of whom were injured in the explosion that occurred Friday evening, just at nightfall.
At his side and visibly upset, Energy Minister Fatih Donmez announced that “we are nearing the end of the rescue operations” and that they “are continuing for one person, whose fate is still unknown”.
“What is particularly sad for us is that we were there just three weeks ago,” he added, in tears. According to him, “the fire in the galleries is now largely under control” as thick gray smoke emanated from the entrance to the mine on Saturday morning. Private Turkish broadcaster NTV showed one of the rescued miners, his face sore blackened, refusing to be taken to an ambulance: “I’m fine, I want to stay here to help my comrades”.
The Head of State, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, expected at the scene in the afternoon, announced on Twitter an exhaustive investigation: “Our judicial bodies will investigate in all its dimensions into this terrible accident which devastated us. No negligence will not be without consequence,” he said.
State of shock
He also promised that the State would take charge and would “protect the families” of the victims, whose funerals were already celebrated on Saturday morning in the neighboring villages, in accordance with Muslim tradition. Recep Tayyip Erdogan, in power since 2003 and who will be a candidate for his succession next June, was to go before to the bedside of some of the 28 wounded evacuated to a hospital in Istanbul, an official told AFP.
Since the evening before, the relatives of the injured miners, consumed with anguish and many in tears, had been waiting for news at the entrance to the mine, noted an AFP photographer. Ambulances lined up stood ready to take care of any injured people.
A woman in shock had to be evacuated by the emergency services, others prayed leaning on the barriers that surrounded the scene, while the surviving miners supported and comforted each other. They themselves participated in the rescue as much as possible: “We brought up the bodies of our comrades, it’s horrible for us,” said one of them, interviewed by NTV.
“Our first observations indicate that some of our friends (miners) lost their lives due to the high pressure and the heat caused by the explosion,” said the Minister of Energy. More than 110 miners were there at the time of the explosion.
Frequent accidents
“I don’t know what happened,” one of the first miners to emerge unscathed from the galleries on their own, told the Anadolu news agency. “There was a sudden pressure and I couldn’t see anything,” he said. According to the local governor, a team of more than 70 people quickly managed to reach a point in the well located some 250 meters deep. But the fire seems to have broken out several hours later.
The accident and its heavy toll provoked several reactions of solidarity with Turkey, including that of Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis on Twitter, who said he was “saddened” by the accident. Despite the very strong tensions between the two countries, the Greek leader said that “Greece stands ready to provide immediate assistance in the search for survivors”.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky also offered his condolences, in Turkish, via Twitter, as did European Council President Charles Michel. Russian President Vladimir Putin also sent Mr Erdogan his “deep condolences”.
Accidents at work are frequent in Turkey, where the strong economic development of the past decade has often come at the expense of safety rules, particularly in construction and mining. The country was brutally aware of this during an accident in 2014 in Soma, in the west of the country, when 301 miners were killed in a coal mine, after an explosion and a fire which had caused the collapse of a well.
Sentences of up to 22 years’ imprisonment and six months had been pronounced by the Turkish courts against five mine officials, found guilty of negligence.