Disaster management agency says authorities are preparing for possibility that death toll in Soma disaster could rise sharply
The Guardian - May 14, 2014
By Ben Quinn and Constanze Letsch
A large rescue operation is under way to free hundreds of coal miners
trapped underground after an explosion and fire in western Turkey left hundreds of their colleagues dead.
Early
on Wednesday Turkey's energy minister, Taner Yildiz, said the death
toll had risen above 200. Hundreds more were believed to be still
trapped inside the mine, while more than 360 had been evacuated.
As
rescue teams made their way from neighbouring regions, fresh air was
being pumped into the mine in Soma, about 75 miles north-east of the
Aegean coastal city of Izmir.
Twenty people initially made it out
of the privately owned mine, where a power distribution unit was said to
have exploded, but local authorities in the western province of Manisa
said that between 200 and 300 workers were still underground.
The
blast in the power unit of the mine triggered an electricity cut, making
the lifts unusable and leaving hundreds of miners stranded underground.
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