“Time is against us” – says the Turkish Energy Minister Taner Yildiz after the serious accident in a mine in the western Turkish Soma. At least 201 buddy died when a substation exploded on Tuesday afternoon and caught fire. The fire continues to burn, the minister said. Hundreds of people are still trapped underground. Rescue workers continue to search for survivors.
Yildiz is rushed to the accident site in the province of Manisa. He said the rescue efforts had reached a “critical point” – with every minute that passes, the more likely that the trapped not survive.
80 miners were injured, four of them life-threatening. 360 workers could be brought to safety. Survivors were only sporadically brought over days, many of them had smoke inhalation and could barely breathe on Wednesday morning. Dozens of security forces were deployed in order to keep lanes for emergency vehicles.
At shift change on Tuesday afternoon estimated 780 men should have been in the pit, when some 400 meters underground, the explosion occurred. The power went out, the lifts and the air supply for the workers no longer worked.
At a depth of 2000 meters, hundreds were imprisoned – about four kilometers from the mine entrance. For the victims and the rescuers began the race against time, the many should lose that night.
The rescue team tried to breath to blow air into the shaft. For safety circuits on site was reported, two air bubbles, it would have formed. At the one hand, the recovery forces had access. In the other, the miners were but cut off from help.
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