AMASRA, Turkey (AP) — The funeral of miners killed in a coal mine explosion in northern Turkey began Saturday when authorities raised the death toll to at least 41.
Desperate parents had waited all afternoon at the bloodless open-air Turkish Hard Coal Enterprise (TTK) state mine in the town of Amasra in the coastal province of Bartin, waiting for news. There were 110 miners running several hundred meters underground at the time of the explosion on Friday night.
Their wait turned to desolation on Saturday at noon. Women wept at the funeral of the youngest Selcuk Ayvaz, whose coffin he wrapped in the red-and-white Turkish flag.
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan arrived at the scene and said the body of a missing child had been beaten, confirming that 41 had died. Erdogan surrounded himself with officials, miners and rescuers, as he vowed to end mining disasters.
“We don’t need to see gaps or risks,” Erdogan said, adding that an investigation would reveal those guilty of the blast.
Eleven were injured and hospitalized, five of them in serious condition, while 58 others managed to get out of the mine on their own or were rescued unharmed.
Energy Minister Fatih Donmez said rescue efforts were nearly complete. Earlier, he said a chimney was burning in a domain where more than a dozen miners had been trapped. Work to insulate and cool the chimney continued, he said.
Preliminary tests indicated the explosion was likely due to firedamp, which refers to flammable gases discovered in coal mines, Donmez said overnight. Three prosecutors were investigating the explosion.
A miner working the day said he saw the news and rushed to the site to help with the rescue.
“We saw a horrific scene, you can’t describe it, it’s very sad,” said Celal Kara, 40. Press after leaving the mine with his face covered in soot.
Ambulances were waiting at the scene. Rescue teams were sent to the area, adding from neighboring provinces, Turkey’s crisis control agency, AFAD, said. Black smoke rose from the front to the mine, which is surrounded by forests.
A TTK mining technician told NTV TV that his rescue and protection team arrived at the site on Friday night. Ismail Cetin said they went down to the mine and walked about 21/2 kilometers (11/2 miles) with their devices and stretchers. He recovered nine bodies, which he called “my martyrs. “
Countries around the world offered their condolences to Turkey. The Greek prime minister has presented rescue aid even though relations between the two neighbors have been strained recently.
Meanwhile, Turkish police said in a statement that legal action would be taken against 12 others who allegedly shared provocative content about the mine explosion to incite hatred on social media.
Turkey’s worst mining crisis occurred in 2014, when 301 miners died after a fire broke out at a coal mine in the western city of Soma. Five months later, 18 miners died in the central province of Karaman after a coal mine flooded.
The leader of DISK, a left-wing union, said in a statement that he was “sad and angry” that the deaths were preventable and the union’s protection councils were being ignored. Despite more inspections being ordered after the Soma tragedy, DISK leader Arzu Cerkezoglu claimed that some precautions for profitability had been ignored, calling Friday’s explosion a “massacre. “