At least 28 Casualties in Mining Explosion

30 workers got entombed in a gas explosion in a mine of the Turkish Coal Corporation Karadon Enterprise Directorate in Zonguldak on the western Black Sea Coast on 17 May. The bodies of 28 of the missing workers were found today (20 May).

Labour and Social Security Minister Ömer Dinçer and Energy Minister Taner Taner Yıldız announced the latest news this morning.

The explosion occurred in a depth of 540 metres. 19 bodies were found close to the mine shaft, another nine bodies were found behind the place of the explosion. Efforts to recover the remaining two bodies are still being continued.

Energy Minister Yıdız declared that rigorous measures are going to be taken related to the latest accidents in coal mines in Bursa, Balıkesir and Zonguldak. Yıldız said that mines with leakages and mines that do not work in accordance with the rules are targeted in particular.

25,000 accidents

In recent years, dozens of mine workers lost their lives in accidents due to subsidence of ground, gas explosions, carbon monoxide poisoning, methane gas and carbon dioxide suffocation.

According to the General Mine Workers Union, 25,655 accidents happened in mines of the Turkish Coal Corporation throughout the past ten years (2000-2009). 26,324 mine workers were injured, 63 lost their lives. (SP/ÇT/VK)