OGUZ GÜREL-TURKEY
PAOLO LOMBARDINI-ITALY
Hopes are dimming for the 30 miners who have been trapped 540 meters below ground surface at a state-run coal mine in northern Turkey.
It is thought that a methane gas explosion has caused the collapse of a section of one of the country’s biggest coal mine
which has trapped the workers.
Hopes are dimming for the 30 miners who have been trapped 540 meters below ground surface at a state-run coal mine in northern Turkey.
A miner who survived Mondays Gas explosion receiving treatment, in shock as 30 others all bellow ground.
It is thought that a methane gas explosion has caused the collapse of a section of one of the country’s biggest coal mine
which has trapped the workers.
The explosion which occurred on Monday at the Karadon mine, which is situated in Zonguldak, North Turkey, a city in the Black Sea region of the country.
Labour Minister, Ömer Dinçer, said "We currently do not know how big the collapse is and we do not have enough information on how we will get to the trapped miners. We are considering all the options possible and we want to get to the miners as soon as possible."
After this speech, Dinçer received protest from the mine employees and the loved ones of the trapped miners.
"We want you (Dincer) to go around all of mines. We want you to see the paths in the mine, If someone was injured within this mine, they wouldn’t be able to be carried out, they will die" said angry miners and their loved ones.
Just three months ago another methane gas explosion at a coal mine in north-west Turkey resulted in 13 people being killed. In December 2009 another similar explosion in a coal mine in Bursa resulted in 19 workers dying.
Rescuers were continuing their efforts today, to get to the workers by pumping air into the mine to dispel the gas so that digging is safe in deeper areas of the mine where the collapse occurred.
Eleven workers have survived the explosion in which 30 workers including 2 engineers are trapped half a kilometer beneath ground.
Turkey’s worst mining disaster was in 1992 where 270 people were killed in Zonguldak after a huge gas explosion collapsed the mine.
Turkey has one of the worst safety records in the mining industry amongst most industrial nations.
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