ISLAMABAD: Shehbaz Sharif Saturday said his thoughts went out to Turkey where an explosion in a coal mine in northern Bartin province on Friday killed 28 people.
Rescuers had pulled out 14 bodies by Friday night and searched for signs of life among dozens of coal miners still trapped under hundreds of metres underground after an apparent methane blast tore through a pit on the country’s Black Sea coast.
Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu said 28 people who either managed to crawl out on their own or were saved by rescuers had suffered various injuries in one of Turkey’s deadliest industrial accidents in years.
“In all, 110 of our brothers were working (underground). Some of them came out on their own, and some of them were rescued.”
Reacting to the news, the prime minister expressed profound grief at the loss of lives in the incident and said: “Our thoughts [and] prayers are with the bereaved families [and] the Turkish people. May those still trapped are rescued at the earliest.”
I express our profound sadness at the loss of precious lives in an explosion at a coal mine in Turkey’s Bartin province. Our thoughts & prayers are with the bereaved families & the Turkish people. May those still trapped are rescued at the earliest.
— Shehbaz Sharif (@CMShehbaz) October 15, 2022
In 2014, 301 workers were killed in Turkey’s worst-ever mining disaster in the western town of Soma, 350 kilometres (217 miles) south of Istanbul.
— With AFP and Reuters
