An explosion inside a coal mine in northern Turkey killed 41 people, officials said Saturday.
Update 11:25 a.m. EDT Oct. 15: Officials raised the death toll to 41 after an explosion in a coal mine on Friday, The Associated Press. Funerals for the victims began on Saturday, according to the news organization.
Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu said that 11 people were hospitalized and one miner has been released, the BBC reported.
Original report: There were 110 miners working in the shaft when the explosion occurred Friday evening in the state-owned TTK Amasra Muessese Mudurlugu mine in the town of Amasra, according to The Associated Press.
The explosion was the worst mining-related disaster in Turkey in eight years, The New York Times reported. The country’s worst disaster occurred in 2014, when 301 people were killed after a blast in the western town of Soma, CNN reported.
It took four days to remove all the bodies from the mine, according to the Times.
Officials said the combustion of gases was the cause of Friday’s explosion, the newspaper reported. Fatih Donmez, Turkey’s energy minister, said there were initial indications that the blast was caused by firedamp, which is methane forming an explosive mixture in coal mines.
“We are facing a truly regretful situation,” Donmez said.
Approximately 110 people were inside the mine when the explosion occurred, the BBC reported. About half the miners were about 1,000 feet beneath the surface.
Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu said Saturday that in addition to the 40 miners who were confirmed dead, 11 were injured and hospitalized, the AP reported. Another 58 managed to get out of the mine on their own or were rescued unharmed, the BBC and AP reported. The status of one remaining miner was unclear.
Three prosecutors are investigating the explosion, according to the AP.