48 Hours in Ermenek Mine
It has been two days since water flooded in a mine operated by Has Şeker Mining Co located in the central district of Ermenek.
As efforts to save 18 miners who are still trapped in a mine located in the central district of Ermene, the waiting of family members and coworkers continue.
Entering the 48th hour
The water flooding took place around 12:15pm local time on October 28.
While 26 were present in the gallery at the time of incident, 8 were able to escape. The name of the 18 trapped workers were listed as follows: Osman Çoksöyler, Hüsnü Çolak, Ali Haznedar, Kerim Haznedar, Mehmet Tokat, Hüseyin Çolak, İsa Gözbaşı, Bahri Üzer, Kamil Yaman, Tezcan Gökçe, Uğur İlhan, Hüseyin Gültekin, İsmail Gürses, Mehmet Baha, Mehmet Özcan, Hasan Tuncer, Recep Çiloğlu, Ömer Cansu.
Rescue and water evacuation efforts are underway.
On October 28, Turkey’s Energy (Taner Yıldız) and Social Security (Faruk Çelik) Ministers headed to Ermene, following up the rescue efforts with the local officials.
Yıldız also released a statement reminding that they have inspected the aforementioned mine twice during the year of 2014.
“8 faults were detected in the term of June and fines were imposed as their graveness haven’t been enough to close down the mine,” he said.
President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and PM Ahmet Davutoğlu visited te incident area on October 29, pledging to launch investigation on the incident and the mine company officials.
On the other hand, pictures from the dressing rooms of miners began to circulate around social media and news outlets.
As efforts to save 18 miners who are still trapped in a mine located in the central district of Ermene, the waiting of family members and coworkers continue. (BK/BM)
* Photo credits: Anıl Bağrık, Gökhan Balcı, Murat Kula, Kayhan Özer, Murat Özünal, Hakan Göktepe, Abdullah Yıldiz / Ermenek / AA
* Click here to read the article in Turkish.