One mine worker killed under rubble after Zonguldak mine collapses

ZONGULDAK

One trapped mine worker died and one was rescued after a coal mine collapsed early on Dec. 13 in the Kilimli district of the Black Sea province of Zonguldak.

The miner who died in the collapse was identified as Fevzi Dereli, Doğan News Agency reported.

Accidents have beset Turkey’s mining industry in the recent years, with the most devastating one killing 301 coal miners in the western district of Soma in May 2014, considered the country’s deadliest industrial accident.

On Oct. 18, seven workers were killed in a mine collapse in the southeastern province of Şırnak.

On May 30, a collapse occurred in a mine run by a private firm in the Kilimli district.

On June 1, search and rescue teams retrieved the bodies of two workers from a collapsed coal mine in Zonguldak after more than 30 hours.

In October 2014, 18 miners died in a flood at a coal mine in the Ermenek district of the Central Anatolian province of Karaman.

In November 2016, 16 workers were killed in a copper mine landslide in the Şirvan district of the southeastern province of Siirt.

Turkey’s Energy and Natural Resources Ministry stopped the activities of 1,780 mines as of August after increased inspections of mines with a new plan adopted in August, it had announced on Nov. 18.