Update: Protests break out as death toll climbs past 270 in Turkey
The death toll from the deadly explosion at a coal mine in western Turkey rose to 274 as of 6 pm Wednesday, May 14 and about 150 miners were still missing. More than 360 miners had been rescued from the mine.
The mine, owned by SOMA Komur isletmeleri A.S., underwent regular inspections in the last three years, two of them this March, Turkey’s government said. Inspectors reported no violation of health and safety laws, CNN reported.
However, protests broke out in the towns of Soma and Instanbul, and Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan was forced to flee to safety among shout of "murderer" and "thief," the Associated Press reported.
The deadly fire started after a transformer blew up nearly 1 km below ground and was so intense that it prevented help from getting to the trapped miners.
The casualty toll of 274 dead by mid afternoon is the highest in a mining disaster since 263 workers died in a gas explosion at a mine near Zonguldak on the Black Sea in 1992, The New York Times reported.
“We are worried that this death toll will rise,” the energy minister, Taner Yildiz, had told reporters. “I have to say that our hopes are dimming in terms of the rescue efforts.”
“We are dealing with an incident that might result with the highest worker loss ever in Turkey,” Yildiz said, according to Turkish news reports. “We still want to hope that miners have found small caves to hide in to breathe and survive.”
By Wednesday, 360 workers had been brought to safety by hundreds of rescuers, including some miners who had survived the explosion, according to the semiofficial Anadolu News Agency. But some parts of the facility remained inaccessible.
