Turkeys' agony and anger grow as death toll hits 274
Families demand answers as search for bodies drags on.
A miner cries as workers carry a miner’s body Wednesday from the site of amining disaster in Soma, Turkey. An explosion set off a fire in the mine Tuesday. The death toll rose to 274 on Wednesday, and hopes of finding survivors dimmed. About 150 miners were thought to still be underground. Anti-government protests broke out in Soma and in Turkey’s capital as families demanded answers.
SOMA, TURKEY— As hopes began to fade Wednesday for hundreds of coal miners still trapped underground by a hellish explosion, anti-government protests broke out here and in the capital, while victims’ families demanded answers in what is emerging as the worst mining disaster in the country’s history.
Mournful family members mostly watched in silence as rescue workers slowly removed bodies from the mine’s fiery and poisonous depths. As the rescue operation dragged on, the death toll rose to 274, and a senior official said hopes of finding survivors were “dimming.”
Thousands of people gathered in Soma, the nearest town, in hopes of getting news of relatives and friends who were unaccounted for. Many family members complained about a lack of information from the government of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and local emergency agencies.
About 150 miners were thought to still be underground after an explosion in a power distribution unit Tuesday set off a fire that was still burning Wednesday.
The death toll of 274 by Wednesday evening was the highest in a Turkish mining disaster. In 1992, 263 workers died in a gas explosion at a mine near Zonguldak on the Black Sea.
“We are worried that this death toll will rise,” the energy minister, Taner Yildiz, told reporters in Soma. “I have to say that our hopes are dimming in terms of the rescue efforts.”
“We are dealing with an incident that might result with the highest worker loss ever in Turkey,” Yildiz said, according to Turkish news reports. “We still want to hope that miners have found small caves to hide in to breathe and survive.”
Erdogan canceled a trip to Albania to visit the scene of the disaster and express sympathy to the families of the dead. “We as a nation of 77 million are experiencing a very great pain,” he told a news conference afterward.