Bodies of two trapped miners recovered from Ermenek mine

KARAMAN

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Search and rescue teams on Nov. 29 reached the remains of two more workers who were killed in a mine disaster in the southern Anatolian town of Ermenek, while efforts are continuing to reach six others in the facility.

Eighteen miners were trapped underground after a flood at a coal mine in Ermenek in Karaman on Oct. 28. A total of 12 miners’ bodies have been recovered from the mine so far.

The bodies of two miners have been sent to Ermenek State Hospital for an autopsy.

Turkey’s disaster management agency (AFAD) released a statement on Nov. 29, saying a team of 603 people, including 315 search and rescue officers, were continuing the rescue efforts.

Some 88 percent of the mine was scanned and 3,652 wagons of debris have been removed from the mine so far, the statement said.

The teams advanced 14 meters in 24 hours but there are still 231 meters to search, it added.

The officials from the Ermenek Courthouse said the exact cause of death for the workers would be determined by an official report prepared by the Forensic Medicine Institute after examinations on samples taken from the bodies are completed, Anadolu Agency has reported.

Meanwhile, daily Bugün reported on Nov. 28 that autopsies conducted on the 10 miners who have been found so far revealed that they died of coal gas poisoning.

Eight of the miners, who were huddled around each other when they were found dead on day 22 of the rescue efforts, climbed a wall and waited there for 15 hours for help before succumbing to the poisoning, the report said.