Bodies of two trapped miners in central Turkey recovered

AA photo

Turkish Energy Minister Taner Yıldız has announced that the bodies of two of the 18 trapped miners in a flooded mine in Central Anatolia have been recovered 10 days after the disaster.

"[The bodies of] our brothers will be transfered to Ermenek State Hospital. DNA tests will be conducted with the families [for the identification of the bodies], if prosecutors agree with it," Yıldız said late Nov. 6, stating that the victims were found close to the spot where the miners were having lunch underground.

18 miners have been trapped since an Oct. 28 flooding deep inside a coal mine in the town of Ermenek in the Central Anatolian province of Karaman. The cause of the accident is yet to be determined. 

As the Ermenek Public Prosecutor’s Office demanded that officials from the mine be put on probation for their possible responsibility in the disaster, government officials pointed at each other.

"Are we the sole authority responsible for these kinds of incidents? One should better look at all counterparts,” Labor Minister Faruk Çelik said in a recent interview with Hürriyet, blaming "systemic flaws."

Turkey’s largest ever industrial disaster had let to the loss of 301 miners in the western town of Soma in May.