Search and rescue operations are underway to reach nine workers trapped underground after landslide hit a dump-leaching area of a gold mine in eastern Türkiye on Tuesday.
A large number of search and rescue teams were dispatched to the Ilic district of Erzincan Province after the Copler gold mine collapsed at 2:28 p.m. local time (1128 GMT), Turkish Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya told reporters late Tuesday.
Nine workers trapped under the landslide are beneath a volume of 10 million cubic meters involving a mound of soil extracted from the mine, he said, adding that a total of 827 personnel were taking part in search and rescue work. Other workers at the mine have also joined the efforts to rescue their colleagues, while families of the missing waited at an area close to the mine for news of their loved ones, Haberturk television reported.
An investigation into the disaster has been launched. The movement of the landslide occurred along a slope with an approximate height of 200 meters, Yerlikaya said.
Turkey has a poor mine safety record. In 2022, an explosion at the Amasra coal mine on the Black Sea coast killed 41 workers. The country’s worst mining disaster took place in 2014 at a coal mine in Soma, western Turkey, where 301 people were killed.
xinhua
