Turkey coal mine explosion kills 41, injures 11

Photo Courtesy: BBC

Kathmandu: Forty-one people have died following an explosion in a coal mine in northern Turkey, the country’s president says.

As reported by the BBC, discovery of the final missing body brings the rescue operation to an end, more than 20 hours after Friday’s deadly blast.

Earlier, 58 people working in the mine when the blast went off were rescued or got out by themselves.

Around 110 people were in the mine at the time of Friday’s blast, almost half of them at more than 300m (984ft) deep.

Emergency crews had worked through the night, digging through rock to try to reach survivors.

Video footage showed miners emerging blackened and bleary-eyed accompanied by rescuers at the facility in Amasra, on the Black Sea coast.

Family and friends of the missing could also be seen at the mine, anxiously awaiting news of their loved ones.

It is believed to have occurred at around 300m deep. At the time, some 49 people had been working in the “risky” zone between 300 and 350m underground.

The mine belongs to the state-owned Turkish Hard Coal Enterprises.

Turkey witnessed its deadliest coal mining disaster in 2014, when 301 people died after a blast in the western town of Soma.

(News Source: BBC)