Five dead as mine collapses in west Turkey

ISTANBUL, Turkey—Turkish rescuers on Friday recovered the bodies of three miners trapped in a mine collapse in western Turkey, raising the death toll to five, local authorities said.

In a separate accident, another miner died on Friday during the collapse of an unlicensed mine in Kilimli, a town on Turkey‘s northwestern Black Sea coast, media reports said.

The first incident occurred on Thursday at a mine in Manisa province, about 100 kilometers (60 miles) northeast of the resort city of Izmir.

“Search and rescue operations carried out after the mine collapse in Soma district have ended and the bodies of the three mine workers who were trapped have been recovered,” the governor’s office said on X early Friday.

Authorities said seven workers were caught in the accident.

Rescue teams recovered the bodies of two miners from the site while two others were rescued and taken to hospital, leaving three trapped inside the mine, the justice minister wrote on X.

Their bodies were recovered early Friday, bringing the death toll to five.

Justice Minister Akin Gurlek has ordered an investigation.

Nine company executives, including the manager of the mine’s operator, were detained on suspicion of negligence following the collapse, DHA news agency said.

A union official who spoke to AFP on the condition of anonymity explained coal production had been on the decline with existing areas over-exploited, so a new section was being developed.

“This section was not yet operational,” he said, and the financial strains on management was “increasing the pressure to speed up” the work.

Soma was the site of Turkey‘s deadliest mining disaster in 2014, when 301 miners died from carbon monoxide poisoning following an underground fire triggered by an explosion. /apl