Bodies of 2 more Turkish miners recovered in SE Turkey

By Ozgur Ayaydın, Zekeriya Guneş, Hasan Namli, Aziz Aslan and Selman Tur

SIIRT, Turkey

Two bodies of miners were recovered Friday, eight days after a mine collapsed in southeastern Turkey’s Siirt province.

The bodies were located with the help of search dogs, an Anadolu Agency reporter at the scene witnessed.

Six other miners remain trapped underground.

So far, 10 bodies have been found at the Madenkoy copper mine in Sirvan district.

Heavy rainfall is believed to have triggered a landslide that caused the mine collapse on Nov. 17.

The mine’s operating manager was remanded in custody on Saturday. He was accused of negligence related to safety regulations.

The Madenkoy mine is run by Park Elektrik, a member of the Ciner Group which has operated the facility since 2006.

Earlier this week, an incident took place at a privately-owned mine in the Kilimli district of Zonguldak province, a region on Turkey’s Black Sea coast.

The body of a 34-year-old mine worker was recovered on Tuesday, 10 hours after the mine collapsed in northern Turkey.

Other serious accidents have beset Turkey’s mining industry in the past.

In May 2014, 301 coal miners were killed in the Soma mine in western Turkey -- the country’s worst mining disaster.

This October, 18 miners died in a flood at a coal mine in Ermenek in central Turkey.