17 miners killed in mine collapse in northwestern Turkey, 29 miners evacuated

17 miners killed in northwest Turkey mine collapse

ANKARA, Turkey — A methane gas explosion caused an underground chamber in a coal mine in northwestern Turkey to collapse Tuesday, killing 17 workers, the governor said — the second deadly explosion at the mine in four years.

The blast near the town of Dursunbey in Balikesir province buried the miners 820 feet (250 meters) below the surface, said Erhan Ortakoylu, the mine’s owner.

Rescue work was called off after 29 workers were evacuated, said Gov. Yilmaz Arslan of Bursa province.

Eleven workers and a mining engineer were killed inside the mine and five others died at a hospital, where they were admitted with severe burns, the state-run Anatolia news agency said.

Seventeen workers were killed in the same mine in a similar blast in June 2006, the Anatolia said. The mine is 20 kilometers (12 miles) from the center of Dursunbey.

In December, a similar accident killed 19 miners in Bursa province, also in northwestern Turkey. Safety violations and outdated equipment have been factors in past mine accidents in the country.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.