The death toll in the coal mine where an explosion hit in Soma, Turkey, keeps rising, and anger over the incident has spread around the country. Thousands of people staged protests after a speech from Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan that suggested such accidents are unavoidable.
Officials say at least 282 mine workers have died in the incident; that figure seems certain to rise, with around 100 more people still missing. The mine explosion is already being called the deadliest industrial disaster in the country's history.
Burials are being held today in Soma. As Reuters reports, "Loudspeakers broadcast the names of the dead and excavators dug mass graves."
The fate of workers still trapped in the mine is uncertain, but officials have said they aren't optimistic about bringing anyone else out alive. Rescue efforts have been hampered by fires inside the deep mine; it also contains lethal amounts of carbon monoxide, which is being blamed for many of the deaths.
Turkey's mine safety standards are the subject of a story by the country's NTV network today, which notes that emergency safe rooms, like the one that helped 33 miners survive for more than two months after a collapse in Chile, are not required in Turkey.
Anger over the mine disaster has sparked public protests, particularly after Erdogan made remarks Wednesday in which he compared the event to industrial accidents in nineteenth-century Britain.
He was quoted by Turkey's Hurriyet Daily News:
" 'I went back in British history. Some 204 people died there after a mine collapsed in 1838. In 1866, 361 miners died in Britain. In an explosion in 1894, 290 people died there,' Erdogan said on a visit to the grieving town of Soma, while choosing not to elaborate on how accidents in 19th-century Britain might be applicable to Soma's unfolding disaster." 'Take America with all of its technology and everything ... In 1907, 361 [miners died there],' he added. 'These are usual things.' "
In Soma and other cities, crowds of people gathered, chanting their demand that the government resign.
Video of Erdogan's visit to Soma shows a mass of people surrounding his official convoy, booing, hitting, and kicking the vehicles. A government official, wearing a suit and tie, was reportedly photographed angrily kicking at a man as two soldiers grappled with him on the ground. Turkish media — and Britain's Channel 4 — say the official is Yusuf Yerkel, a senior adviser to Erdogan.
Protests also formed in large cities. From CNN:
"Hundreds took to the streets in anti-government protests in Istanbul and Ankara, with police answering in some cases with water cannons and tear gas."In the nation's capital of Ankara, some left black coffins in front of the Energy Ministry and the Labor and Social Security ministry buildings."
At least one group called for workers' strikes across Turkey today.
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