Minister Pakdemirli: Hydroelectric Power Plant Has Fallen Victim to Flood

* Photograph: Anadolu Agency

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The number of people who have lost their lives in a water pipe blast that occured in a hydroelectric power plant in Araklı in Turkey's Black Sea province of Trabzon has increased to seven.

Minister of Interior Süleyman Soylu and Minister of Agriculture and Forestry Bekir Pakdemirli went to Araklı after the incident. While the current death toll has been announced by Minister Soylu, the search and rescue operations for three missing people are still continuing.

Minister Pakdemirli: It is completely natural

Speaking in Araklı today (June 19), Ministers Soylu and Pakdemirli has argued that the flood was not caused by hydroelectric power plant.

"The hydroelectric power plant is downwards while the incident occured upwards. For that reason, the landslide was triggered by a huge stone that broke away from the hill," Minister Soylu has commented on the incident.

As for Minister Pakdemirli, he has stated, "The hydroelectric power plant is not the reason of that incident. The power plant has fallen victim to it. In other words, it is a completely natural incident."

Search and rescue operations continue

As reported by local 61Saat news website, five of seven people who lost their lives in the incident are Arsin Municipality employee Ali Abdullah Osmanoğlu, imam of the neighborhood Soner Özbay, neighborhood resident Mehmet Cevahir, State Hydraulic Works (DSİ) employee Hasan Çakar and Trabzon Metropolitan Municipality worker Baki Turhan. (TP/SD)