New Delhi: At least 22 people have died and several are still trapped after an apparent methane blast tore through a pit on Turkey’s Black Sea coast, with rescuers searching for dozens of coalminers still trapped hundreds of metres underground, as reported by the news agency AFP.
According to Süleyman Soylu, the interior ministereth, 28 people who either managed to crawl out on their own or were saved by rescuers had suffered various injuries in one of Turkey’s deadliest industrial accidents in years, the agency reported.
“We are facing a truly regretful situation,” Soylu told reporters after urgently flying out to the small coalmining town of Amasra. “In all, 110 of our brothers were working [underground]. Some of them came out on their own, and some of them were rescued.,” AFP quoted Soylu as saying.
Almost 50 miners were still trapped in two separate areas between 300 and 350 metres below ground, Soylu confirmed. According to the images shown on the television, anxious crowds congregated around a damaged white building near the entrance to the pit in search of news about their friends and loved ones.
The Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, was expected to reach the scene of the accident on Saturday. Most initial information about those trapped inside was coming from workers who had managed to climb out relatively unharmed. The Amasra mayor, Recai Çakir, said many of those who survived suffered “serious injuries,” as reported by AFP
The blast occurred moments before sunset and the rescue effort was being impeded by the dark. Turkey’s Maden-İş mining workers’ union attributed the blast to a buildup of methane gas. But other officials said it was premature to draw definitive conclusions over the cause of the accident, AFP reported.
Rescuers sent in reinforcements from surrounding villages to help search for signs of life. According to the television images, paramedics gave oxygen to the miners who had climbed out and they were rushed to the nearest hospitals.
The local governor said a team of more than 70 rescuers had managed to reach a point in the pit about 250 metres below, AFP rep[orted.
Although It was tough to determine immediately if the rescuers would be able to come any closer to the trapped workers or what was blocking their further passage.
The AFAD disaster management service said the initial spark that caused the blast appeared to have come from a malfunctioning transformer. However It later withdrew the report saying that the methane gas ignited due to “unknown reasons”. The local public prosecutor’s office said it was treating the incident as an accident and launching a formal investigation, as reported by AFP.
(With AFP Inputs)