Turkish Mine Toll Up to 121; 150 Trapped

Heavy smoke and gas blocked rescuers Wednesday from reaching an estimated 150 men trapped deep in a burning mine; 121 bodies had already been recovered in Turkey’s worst mining disaster, officials said.

“We wait for a miracle for their survival,” Akin Gonen, the state minister for press relations, said of the missing. Heat and toxic gas from the fire have probably killed any miners who survived the blast, he added.

Workers closed ventilation shafts to cut off air feeding the fire ignited by the blast and erected concrete barriers to prevent the spread of the blaze. Ambulances lined up outside the entrance, where thousands of relatives of missing miners also waited anxiously for news of loved ones. Other ambulances carried charred bodies covered with blankets to morgues for identification.

It was a grimly familiar scene in this northern Turkish city of 60,000 where most families earn their living from the mine.

“How am I going to survive alone?” cried one woman whose husband remained missing. She held her 9-year-old son.

Tuesday’s explosion 1,850 feet below the surface caused a 1 1/2-square-mile portion of the Incirharmani mine to collapse, said Ozer Olcer, the head of Turkey’s state-owned Coal Enterprise.

The biggest Turkish labor confederation, Turk-Is, issued a statement attacking what it said are low safety standards at the mine.

The early-warning system did not work because the naturally occurring methane gas that caused the blast built up to a dangerous level a mere 20 seconds before the explosion, Minister of State Omer Barutcu said.

“It is a heart-burning pain for the whole country,” Prime Minister Suleyman Demirel, holding back tears, told reporters in Kozlu.

Gonen, the press minister, had said 101 miners were known dead and 75 others had been injured. He said the government now estimates there are 150 workers still missing, down from earlier estimates of up to 300. Anatolia news agency later reported that 20 more bodies were found, bringing the total to 121.

Mine Disaster

* The explosion in Kozlu, Turkey, was the fifth and by far the most lethal blast since 1945 at the mine. Previous accidents there have killed 107.

* The world’s worst mine disaster occurred in China on April 26, 1942, when 1,572 people were killed in an explosion at Honkeiko.

Source: Times Wire Reports