Five dead in coal mine collapse in Soma, Turkey

Five people died in the collapse of a coal mine in western Turkey following development work, AFP learned Friday from local and union sources, after the discovery of three new bodies. “Search and rescue operations carried out after the mine collapse in Soma district have been completed and the bodies of the three miners who were trapped have been found,” the local governor’s office said on X.

The accident occurred Thursday at lunchtime in a mine in the province of Manisa, about a hundred kilometers from the seaside resort of Izmir. Seven miners were trapped by the mine collapse. Rescue teams only managed to extract two alive, who were hospitalized. Two other bodies had already been recovered by emergency services. Justice Minister Akin Gürlek ordered an investigation.

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“Financial stress”

According to a union official who requested anonymity for fear of reprisals, “coal production in the already exploited areas of the mine was in decline. The company was therefore developing a new section.” According to him, “this section was not yet operational”. But he told AFP that management was under financial strain, “further increasing the pressure to accelerate” the work.

He specified that “the workers were digging under a guide tunnel”, which weakened the structure, before being buried. In a separate accident, another miner died Friday when an illegal mine collapsed in a small town in the northwest of the country on the Black Sea coast, according to local media.

Soma was the scene of the deadliest mining disaster in Turkey's history in 2014, when 301 miners died from carbon monoxide poisoning following an underground fire sparked by an explosion. The testimonies of numerous miners and several technical reports had highlighted a series of basic breaches of safety rules, in particular a lack of carbon monoxide detectors. After this deadly accident, the government urgently passed a reform intended to improve the working conditions of miners.