Turkish rescuers yesterday recovered the bodies of three miners trapped in a mine collapse in western Turkiye, raising the death toll to five, local authorities said.
In a separate incident, another miner died yesterday during the collapse of an unlicensed mine in a town on Turkiye’s northwestern Black Sea coast, media reports said.
The initial incident occurred on Thursday at a mine in Manisa province, about 100 kilometres (60 miles) northeast of the resort city of Izmir.
“Search and rescue operations carried out after the mine collapse in Soma district have ended and the bodies of the three mine workers who were trapped have been recovered,” the governor’s office said on X early yesterday.
Authorities said seven workers were caught in the accident.
Rescue teams recovered the bodies of two miners from the site while two others were rescued and taken to hospital, leaving three trapped inside the mine, the justice minister wrote on X.
Their bodies were recovered early yesterday, bringing the death toll to five.
Following the collapse, nine company executives, including the manager of the mine operating company, were detained on suspicion of negligence, DHA news agency said.
Soma was the site of Turkiye’s deadliest mining disaster in 2014, when 301 miners died from carbon monoxide poisoning following an underground fire triggered by an explosion.
In a separate deadly collapse, an unlicensed mine collapsed near Kilimli, a town on the Black Sea, leaving one worker trapped, DHA said.
Although he was pulled out by his colleagues, he was badly injured and died in hospital.