Rescue workers tried Wednesday to reach nearly 300 miners trapped deep in a coal mine after an explosion and fire one-third of a mile below the surface killed at least 87 of their fellow workers.
Crying relatives crowded the mine entrance as the dead and injured were pulled out.A nearby state hospital quickly filled with 87 injured miners, many of them in serious condition. When the hospital morgue filled, another floor was used to hold charred bodies.
The methane gas explosion occurred Tuesday night about 1,800 feet below the surface in Kozlu, six miles from the Black Sea port of Zonguldak. The northern region was the site of what had been Turkey's worst coal mine disaster, a 1983 blast that killed 102 miners.
Heavy accumulations of gas and smoke kept rescue teams from reaching the site of the explosion Wednesday, state television reported. Thus far, bodies have been recovered only from the higher levels of the mine.
Chances of survival have greatly decreased for the trapped miners, Ozer Olcer, head of the state-owned Coal Mines Institution, told state television.
State Minister Omer Barutcu said an early warning system did not work, because the methane gas increased to a dangerous level only 20 seconds before it exploded.
He said cement barriers will be erected inside the mine to prevent the spread of the fire ignited by the blast.
Barutcu said the number of missing miners - 296 - was determined from the number of flashlights registered as in use. Earlier reports had estimated as many as 700 miners were missing.
"Nobody really exactly knows how many people are affected," said Premier Suleyman Demirel, who went to Kozlu to get first-hand information on the disaster.
Turkey's largest worker's confederation, Turk-Is, issued a statement blaming the disaster on inadequate safety standards in Turkey's coal mines.
One injured mine worker said he heard a great explosion, followed by intense heat and a blackout. With the help of a flashlight, he walked to safety in two hours.
"Everything happened so suddenly. I thought doomsday had arrived," said Yusuf Sahin, another survivor.An AP photographer said most of the bodies in the hospital were charred from burns and there were also some victims who suffocated.
Many anxious relatives searched for their loved ones in vain.
"How am I going to survive alone?" cried the wife of a missing miner as she held their 9-year-old son.
"The passages were full of bodies as we ran for the upper levels," Salih Yanik told reporters at the hospital in Zonguldak.
"We heard a noise like a rushing wind. I can't forget it," said Yanik, who was trapped 1,275 feet below ground for four hours before being rescued.
Cevat Engin, who escaped with facial cuts, said the blast blew him nine yards from the seam he was drilling.