Turkey Mine Blast Kills More than 200

Local Editor

An explosion at a coal mine in the western Turkish province of Manisa has left at least 201 people dead and more than two hundred others trapped on Tuesday, officials say.
Hundreds more were still believed to be trapped in the mine in Soma, around 120 km [75 miles] northeast of the Aegean coastal city of Izmir, and the death toll could rise further, Turkish Energy Minister Taner Yildiz told reporters at the scene.

"The death toll is rising towards a point that we had feared," He added.

Yildiz had warned late on Tuesday that 787 workers had been in the mine at the time of the blast, believed to have been caused by an electrical fault.

He described the situation at the mine as "worrisome," saying, "We fear the number [of casualties] could rise even further because those who came to help out may be among the injured and affected by the smoke."

Medical staff intermittently emerged from the hospital to read the names of survivors being treated inside, with families and fellow workers clamoring for information.

Knowing that a similar incident in 1992, marked the country's worst mining disaster in which 270 miners were killed near Zonguldak, on the Black Sea.

Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team