AFP/Reuters

Istanbul

At least four miners were killed and as many as 400 others remain trapped underground after a coal mine collapsed in the western Turkish province of Manisa yesterday, a lawmaker said.

Having initially stating that 20 miners had died in the accident, Manisa MP Muzaffer Yurttas, a member of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), later told CNN Turk there were only four deaths.

The victims were among 20 people taken to a nearby hospital shortly after an explosion at the mine, believed to have been triggered by a faulty electrical transformer.

The blast at the mine in Soma, around 120km northeast of the Aegean coastal city of Izmir, happened during a change in shifts, leading to uncertainty over the exact number of workers still inside, labour union officials said.

“They are pumping oxygen into the mine, but the fire is still burning. They say it is an electrical fault but it could be that coal is burning as well,” Tamer Kucukgencay, chairman of the regional labour union, told Reuters by telephone.

Fire officials were desperately trying to pump clean air into the mine shaft for those who remain trapped some 2km below the surface and 4km from the entrance.

Five men were rescued, fire officials said, but added that thick smoke was making progress difficult.

An ambulance helicopter was dispatched to the scene, while the general army staff sent a rescue team of 15-20 people, the Anatolia news agency reported.

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

Regional governor Bahattin Atci said the fire had started around 1530 local time (1230 GMT).

Local media said there were 580 people trapped in the mine at the time of the explosion but many had escaped.

Large crowds of tearful and worried family members gathered near the site.

“I don’t want to give any numbers. Our priority is to reach our workers underground,” Energy Minister Taner Yildiz told journalists before heading to Manisa. “Four separate rescue teams are currently working in the mine. The fire is creating a problem but oxygen is being pumped into the mine shafts that weren’t affected.”

Yurttas said there were between 300 and 400 people still trapped.

Other estimates put the number between 200 and 300.

Vedat Didari, a professor of mining, told AFP that the biggest risk is the loss of oxygen.

“If the ceiling fans are not working, the workers could die within an hour,” said Didari, from the Bulent Ecevit University in the city of Zonguldak.

Explosions and cave-ins are common in Turkey, particularly in private mines where safety regulations are often flouted.

The worst mining accident happened in 1992 when 263 workers were killed in a gas explosion in a mine in Zonguldak.

Soma is one of the key centres for lignite coal mining in Turkey, a district with a population of around 100,000 where the mines and a lignite-fired thermal power plant are the main economic activity.