Ankara: The Turkish government today said 13
workers were killed in a coal mine collapse in northwestern
Turkey, not 17 as previously reported.
Labour Minister Omer Dincer said four of the bodies had
been counted twice because they were taken to separate
hospitals after a methane gas explosion caused an underground
chamber in the mine to collapse yesterday.
Dincer said at least four of the 18 workers who were
hospitalised with severe burns are still in critical
condition.
It was the second deadly explosion at the mine near the
town of Dursunbey in Balikesir province in four years.
Seventeen workers were killed in the same mine in a similar
blast in 2006. In December, a similar accident killed 19 miners in
neighbouring Bursa province. Safety violations and outdated
equipment have been factors in past mine accidents in the
country.
In Turkey's worst mining disaster, a gas explosion killed
270 workers near the Black Sea port of Zonguldak in 1992.
PTI
First Published: Wednesday, February 24, 2010, 13:59