Death toll in Turkey coal mine explosion rises to 40

More than 40 deaths have now been confirmed after a devastating explosion at a coal mine in northern Turkey.

Terrified people waiting for news about loved ones gathered in the cold through the night outside the state-owed facility.

There were 110 minors working in the shaft when a blast tore through the mine in the town of Amasra, in the Black Sea coastal province of Bartin.

Interior minister Suleyman Soylu has confirmed the death toll has risen after a night of search and rescue operations.

Eleven were injured and in hospital, while 58 others managed to get out of the mine on their own or were rescued unharmed.

The status of one remaining miner is unclear.

Energy minister Fatih Donmez said rescue efforts are almost complete after earlier saying a fire was still burning in the mine’s gallery where more than a dozen miners had been trapped.

Work to isolate and cool the fire is ongoing, he said.

Preliminary assessments indicate the explosion was caused by flammable gases with are naturally occuring in coal mines.

A miner who works the day shift said he saw the news and hurried to the site to help with the rescue.

Celal Kara, 40, said: ‘We saw a frightful scene, it cannot be described, it’s very sad.

‘They’re all my friends… they all had dreams.’

Turkey’s president Recep Tayyip Erdogan is expected to visit Amasra on Saturday.

He said three prosecutors had been assigned to investigate the incident.

In Turkey’s worst mine disaster, 301 people died in 2014 in a fire inside a coal mine in the town of Soma, in western Turkey.

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