Turkey's opposition leaders have offered their condolences to those affected by the coal mine fire in western Turkey that has claimed at least 238 lives.
The main opposition Republican People's Party leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu said that his party will closely follow the rescue response and investigation of the incident, after visiting wounded miners at Akhisar State Hospital in Manisa province.
Kilicdaroglu said that experts were involved in investigating the cause of the disaster and the details and cause will become known in time.
He had earlier offered his condolences to the families and friends of the victims of the blaze, and called for patience.
"We hope our deep and heart-wrenching grief will not increase," Kilicdaroglu added.
Kilicdaroglu earlier cancelled a trip to the United Kingdom scheduled for 16 May and a central executive board meeting in Ankara on Wednesday.
- 'Pain and disaster'
Meanwhile, Nationalist Movement Party leader Devlet Bahceli also expressed his sadness, saying: "The Turkish nation is facing great pain and disaster."
"A possible rise in the death toll is our great concern," said Bahceli, who will arrive in Soma on Thursday.
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said earlier on Wednesday that the death toll from Tuesday's fire had risen to 238, with 80 miners injured and 120 others still trapped.
Turkey has declared three days of national mourning for the victims of the fire, during which flags will fly at half-mast and parliament will be closed.
The explosion and fire at the mine in the district of Soma in Manisa province is believed to have followed an electrical fault which occurred on Tuesday afternoon.
- Deadly incidents
Mines and stone quarries are the most dangerous places for Turkish workers, according to government statistics.
More than 3,000 people have died and more than 100,000 have been injured in mining accidents since 1941 in Turkey, figures from Turkey's statistics agency, TurkStat, show.
More than 10 percent of work-related accidents in 2013 happened in the mining sector.
The deadliest mining incident in world history took place in Benxi in Liaoning province, China, on April 26, 1942, when 1,549 people died.
The second deadliest mining incident in the world and the worst in Europe occurred in Courrieres, France, on March 10, 1906, when 1,099 workers were killed.
The causes of mine accidents include leaks of poisonous gases, natural gas explosions, fires and mine collapses.
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