Rescuers find body of another miner in Siirt mine disaster

SİİRT - Anadolu Agency

AA photo

The body of one missing miner was recovered on Nov. 22, five days after a mine collapse in the Sirvan district of the southeastern province of Siirt, bringing the number of bodies found at the Madenköy copper mine to seven. 

Nine other workers still remain trapped underground. 

Heavy rainfall is believed to have triggered a landslide that caused the collapse late on Nov. 17. Around 90 members of the Disaster and Emergency Management Authority, National Medical Rescue Organization, Red Crescent and gendarmerie are involved in the ongoing rescue attempt. 

Relatives of the trapped workers are also waiting at the mine.        

The mine’s operating manager was detained on Nov. 19, accused of negligence relating to safety regulations.        
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, central Turkey.