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ANKARA — Rescuers on Thursday found the bodies of 28 miners deep in a damaged coal mine, making the methane gas explosion three days earlier one of the deadliest mine accidents in Turkey in recent years.
Energy Minister Taner Yildiz said rescuers were still trying to find two miners still missing in the Karadon mine, near the northern Black Sea port of Zonguldak.
The explosion Monday buried the miners some 1,770 feet (540 meters) underground. Eleven miners were evacuated shortly after the explosion.
Some 400 mine rescuers had been working in shifts trying to reach the missing miners since then, their work hampered by collapsed rocks.
"We are very saddened and extend our condolences to the miners' families and the whole of Turkey," Labor Minister Omer Dincer said, announcing the deaths alongside Yildiz. "We are doing our best for the other (missing) miners."
The rescuers were able to reach the bodies after they fixed a platform used to lower the miners, Yildiz said. They used the elevator at "great risk" to their own safety, he said.
The minister said the miners appeared to have died of carbon monoxide poisoning, adding that autopsies would be conducted to establish the exact cause of death.
Authorities have said an electrical malfunction might have caused the explosion and an investigation has been launched to see if any safety rules may have been violated.
It was the third mine accident in Turkey in the past six months. In February, a methane gas explosion collapsed an underground chamber in a coal mine in northwestern Balikesir province, killing 13 workers. In December, a similar accident killed 19 miners in neighboring Bursa province.
In Turkey's worst mining disaster, a gas explosion killed 270 workers near Zonguldak in 1992.
Safety violations and outdated equipment have been factors in past mine accidents in Turkey. The government has been working to shut down dangerous mines and those operating without proper licenses.
On Wednesday, President Abdullah Gul ordered government inspectors to launch a thorough overview of mines in the country to more effectively combat poor safety conditions.
