Four suspects arrested after mine disaster in Siirt
SİİRT
AFP photo
Four more suspects were arrested on Dec. 5 after a mine disaster in the southeastern province of Siirt left 12 miners dead and four missing, the state-run Anadolu Agency has reportedThe four latest arrests include an occupational safety specialist.
Five people employed by the mine’s owners, Park Elektrik A.Ş., were detained in the investigation that was opened after heavy rain reportedly resulted in a landslide that buried 16 miners.
On Nov. 19, a court in Şirvan arrested Mehmet Oğuz, the mine’s operating manager, on charges of criminal negligence.
On Nov. 27, rescuers recovered two more bodies of miners killed in the landslide, a security source said.
The mine is run by Park Elektrik, a member of the Ciner Group, which has operated the facility since 2006.
Accidents have beset Turkey’s mining industry in recent years, with 301 coal miners killed in the Soma mine in western Turkey in May 2014, in the country’s worst ever mining disaster.
In October 2014, 18 died in a flood at a coal mine in Ermenek in the Central Anatolian province of Karaman.