‘No hope’: Death toll climbs in Turkish coal mine tragedy

A Turkish minister said Thursday that rescue teams have recovered eight more victims from a coal mine in western Turkey raising the death toll to at least 282 after an explosion in the nation's worst mining accident.

Even as hopes for some 150 other miners trapped underground faded, Energy Minister Taner Yildiz said that rescue efforts were focusing on two areas inside the mine.

Yildiz said a fire was still blazing inside the mine, hindering the operation.

On Wednesday a protest erupted in Soma near the rescue operations with many in the crowd expressed anger at Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's government. Rocks were being thrown and some people were shouting that Erdogan was a "murderer!" and a "thief!"

The protesters faced off against riot police, who had gas masks and water cannons, in front of the ruling NKP party headquarters.

The country's main opposition party said that Erdogan's ruling party had recently voted down a proposal for the establishment of a parliamentary inquiry into a series of small-scale accidents at mines around Soma.

Turkey's Labor and Social Security Ministry said the mine had been inspected five times since 2012, including in March 2014, and that no issues violating work safety and security were detected.

Earlier in the day, women wailed uncontrollably, men knelt sobbing and others just stared in disbelief outside the coal mine in western Turkey as rescue workers removed a steady stream of bodies.

Yildiz said 787 people were inside the coal mine at the time of the explosion and 363 of them had been rescued so far.

"Regarding the rescue operation, I can say that our hopes are diminishing," Yildiz said.

The last worker rescued alive emerged from the mine around dawn, a government official said on condition of anonymity because she wasn't authorized to speak publicly to journalists about the issue. As of 3:30 p.m. local time, it had been about 10 hours since anyone had been brought out alive.

Al Jazeera's Caroline Malone, reporting from Soma, said hundreds of people — along with ambulances and fire engines — had gathered around the scene of the accident to help with the rescue effort.

"One of the largest concerns for the miners trapped is getting clean air to them. And they [rescuers] were pumping clean air 12 hours ago and overnight to try and get rid of carbon monoxide, but the rescue effort had to be temporarily halted overnight because of the rising levels of carbon monoxide," she said.

Authorities said the disaster followed an explosion and fire caused by a power distribution unit. The deaths were caused by carbon monoxide poisoning, Yildiz said.

The minister said the fire was still blazing inside the mine, 18 hours after the blast.

Mining accidents are common in Turkey, which is plagued by poor safety conditions. Turkey's worst previous mining disaster was a 1992 gas explosion that killed 263 workers near the Black Sea port of Zonguldak.

Erdogan postponed a foreign trip and visited the mine in Soma, about 155 miles south of Istanbul. He said the tragedy would be investigated to its "smallest detail" and "no negligence will be ignored." 

Earlier, Erdogan declared three days of national mourning, ordering flags to be lowered to half-staff. 

The U.S. Embassy in Ankara issued a statement to express condolences, saying, "We are following the mining disaster in Soma with great sadness."

The explosion tore through the mine as workers were preparing for a shift change, officials said, which likely raised the casualty toll because there were more miners inside the mine than usual.

Yildiz said earlier that some of the workers were 460 yards deep inside the mine. 

Workers from nearby mines were brought in to join the rescue operation. One 30-year-old man, who declined to give his name, said he rushed to the scene to try to help find his brother, who was still missing early Wednesday. He said he was able to make it about 500 feet inside before gases forced him to retreat.

"There is no hope," he said with tears in his eyes.

Emine Gulsen, part of a group of women who sat wailing near the entrance to the mine, chanted in song, "My son is gone, my Mehmet." Her son, Mehmet Gulsen, 31, has been working in the mine for five years.

Police set up fences and stood guard around Soma state hospital to keep the crowds away.

In Istanbul, hundreds of demonstrators gathered outside the headquarters of the company that owns the mine, Soma Holding.

The company said the accident occurred despite the "highest safety measures and constant controls" and added that an investigation was being launched.

"Our main priority is to get our workers out so that they may be reunited with their loved ones," a statement from the company read.

Al Jazeera and The Associated Press