At least 28 people died in a mining accident in Turkey on Friday. Many more people were injured after the coal mine in the northeastern town of Amasra (Bartin province) partially collapsed after an explosion just before sunset, Turkey's Health Minister Fahrettin Koca said. Dozens of workers are still trapped underground.

Rescue workers tried to get to dozens of miners who had been trapped by the explosion on Friday evening. According to local mayor Recai Çakır, some 110 people were trapped in the mine, property of the state-owned Turkish Hard Coal Enterprises. Most of them were trapped 300 meters underground, while at least five miners were trapped elsewhere at 350 meters. According to the authorities, dozens of rescue workers penetrated 250 meters deep into the pit. However, the rescue was complicated because of the darkness.

There was conflicting information about the cause of the accident. The civil protection agency Afad said on Twitter that the explosion was apparently due to a defective power converter. The post has since been deleted. A build-up of methane gas was responsible for the explosion, according to the miners' union. Local prosecutors said the incident was being treated as an accident and launched an official investigation.

A long list of mining accidents

Mining accidents happen again and again in Turkey, often due to inadequate safety precautions. The most serious accident in Turkey's history so far occurred in May 2014. At that time, 301 miners died in the mine in Soma in the west of the country. The tragedy sparked protests against the government of then Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan.