Race to save estimated 120 trapped miners

Hopes were fading for an estimated 120 people still trapped in a collapsed mine in Turkey on Wednesday, as the death toll reached 274 and edged closer to becoming the country's worst-ever industrial disaster.

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan inspected the site in the western town of Soma in Manisa province, a day after an electrical fault caused an explosion that collapsed parts of the mine.

"We have witnessed one of the biggest work accidents in our recent history," Erdogan told reporters. "We have mobilised the state's resources in the face of such a large-scale and painful incident."

He said figures remained uncertain but mining operators thought 120 workers were still trapped.

Erdogan said enquiries would be launched into the causes of the disaster, but remained unrepentant about the government's responsibility.

"Such accidents happen," he said.

He compared it to mining accidents in other countries, saying "204 people died in the UK in 1862 and 361 people in 1864. There is something in literature called work accidents."

The death toll by midday had reached 274, most killed by carbon monoxide poisoning. Three days of national mourning have been declared.

Fires and toxic gases were complicating efforts by 400 rescue workers, said Energy Minister Taner Yildiz.

The miners are all thought to have gas masks, but it was not clear how long they would last.

'Hopes fading'

Earlier reports said 787 workers were underground when the blast occurred, but many were able to escape.

"I must say that our hopes about rescue efforts inside are fading," said Yildiz.

Anger could be seen building among the hundreds of distraught family and friends gathered at the site where Erdogan gave a press conference, with some kicking his vehicle and calling for his resignation.
 
Meanwhile, Turkish police fired tear gas and water cannon at around 800 protesters, mostly students, who marched towards the energy ministry in Ankara, accusing the government and mining industry of negligence, an AFP photographer on the scene said.

Tear gas was also used to disperse around 50 protesters who threw eggs at the mining research directorate in Istanbul, another AFP photographer reported.

Only a handful of miners were seen pulled from the collapsed mine on Wednesday morning, many of them already dead. One emerged wearing an oxygen mask and was immediately rushed to hospital.

As victims were taken away on stretchers, friends and relatives tried to pull away the sheets covering the corpses.

Most sat silently on benches, their faces blank with shock, while others scoured a list of the wounded posted up on a wall alongside the name of the hospital they were taken to.

Harun Unzar, a colleague of the missing miners said he had lost a friend previously "but this is enormous."

"We are a family and today that family is devastated. We have had very little news and when it does come it's very bad," he said.

A security source told AFP there were pockets in the mine, one of which was open so rescuers were able to reach the workers, but the second was blocked with workers trapped inside.

Fire officials were trying to pump clean air into the mine shaft for those who remained trapped some two kilometres (one mile) below the surface and four kilometres from the entrance.

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