A blast that occurred at a mine quarry in the Amasra district in Bartın, Turkey has killed 41 mine workers and left 11 injured. The blast, occurring at 18:15 local time on Friday, was caused by a firedamp explosion at -300 meters elevation.
The disaster was responded with 5 UMKE vehicles, 31 ambulances, 1 emergency response vehicle and a total of 149 personnel. The relatives of the casualties waited many hours for search and rescue operations to be finished.
The relatives of the injured casualties are still waiting for the recovery of their loved ones at hospital.
“There was an incredible amount of carbon monoxide gas inside. Even the sensors we had started to warn us. The explosion even hurled the wagons on the rails to walls. Of course, we could not see, there was also a dense smoke.” said Emrah Açıkgöz, a casualty from the miner team.
Vladimir Putin and Volodymyr Zelenskiy and many other leaders have sent their condolences for the disaster while the Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis posted a tweet that says Greece is ready to send aid to the search efforts.
Many events such as concerts, meetings and festivals were postponed to other dates due to the explosion.