The death toll from a coal mine explosion in northern Turkey has risen to 40, Recai Cakir, mayor of the town of Asmara in Turkey’s northern Bartin regionsaid on Saturday.
“We have counted 40 dead in total. 58 miners were able to save themselves,” Mr Soylu said following one of Turkey’s deadliest industrial accidents in years on Friday.
A tearful Energy Minister Fatih Donmez said: “We are approaching the end of the rescue operation.”
Earlier, Mr Soylu put the death toll at 28 miners, saying that efforts were ongoing to rescue nearly 15 others trapped hundreds of metres underground at the mine in Amasra.
Mr Soylu earlier put the number of trapped miners at about 50, out of 110 believed to be working in the mine at the time of the blast, in two separate areas between 300 and 350 metres below ground.
Mr Donmez said the blast caused a fire in the mine’s gallery where most of the trapped miners were located.
Mr Soylu said 11 of the rescued miners were being treated in hospital.
“Six were taken to city hospitals in Istanbul by ambulance planes of the Ministry of Health and they are being treated there. Five injured are currently in Bartin,” he said.
Television footage showed anxious crowds around a damaged white building near the entrance to the pit to await news of friends and loved ones.
