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Blast in Turkish mine kills 13 workers

Wed, Feb 24 2010 09:55 CET

byNick Iliev

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Blast in Turkish mine kills 13 workers

An explosion in a Turkish mine left 13 people dead and more than 30 injured. The death toll is, however, lower than the 17 originally believed to have been killed.

Turkish labour and social security minister Omer Dincer confirmed that 13 miners in total died following the blast in northwestern province of Balikesir, international media reported on February 24 2010.

The latest explosion is a reminder of the disaster which struck Turkey on December 10 2009, when 19 workers died in a coal mine near the city of Bursa. The December fatal explosion occurred in the village of Devecikonagi near the town of Mustafakemalpasa in the western Turkish province of Bursa.

"We know 13 miners died when a methane gas explosion ripped through the coal mine near the town of Dursunbey. 18 miners were hospitalised after being injured in the explosion. Two of them are in life-threatening condition," Dincer told Turkish media about the most recent incident.

Deadly accidents are not entirely foreign to Turkish mines because of safety violations, obsolete equipment and high concentrations of methane gas. The worst disaster, at Zonguldak on the Black Sea, in 1992, killed 263 workers.

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