Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Wednesday that methane levels at a mine in northwest Turkey were below critical thresholds before an explosion last week killed 41 people.
The blast sped through the mine near the small coal town of Amasra on Turkey’s Black Sea coast just before sunset on Friday.
“According to measurements before the accident, the electricity at the mine was cut off at 18:05 (15:05 GMT) due to a methane level of 1.5 percent,” or 10 minutes before the explosion, Erdogan told MPs belonging to his AKP party .
“In order for methane to explode, its content in the air must reach at least five percent,” Erdogan said.
“We don’t yet know how the explosion could have happened despite all the precautions taken,” said the President. Erdogan visited the scene of the accident on Saturday.
According to Turkish law, mines should evacuate workers when the methane content in the air in the tunnels reaches two percent.
Relatives of the dead told AFP and Turkish media that miners complained about the smell of gas in the mine about 10 days before the blast.
“All that can be said remains speculation until we have a definitive accident report,” the head of state said.
– outcry of the opposition –
The opposition accuses the government of not having taken the necessary measures to prevent the disaster.
“Mine accidents can happen anywhere in the world,” Erdogan said, referring to an accident that killed 1,099 people in France. He did not state that the Courrieres disaster happened in 1906.
“What Century Are We In?” asked opposition leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu on Saturday. “Why do mine accidents keep happening in Turkey?”
Turkey suffered its deadliest coal mining disaster in 2014 when 301 workers died in an explosion and subsequent fire that collapsed a mining shaft in the western city of Soma.
Five mine managers were found guilty of negligence and sentenced to up to 22 years in prison.
Turkey’s Supreme Audit Institution said in its reports in 2019 and 2020 that there had been irregularities at the Amasra mine, according to Turkish media.
Erdogan vowed on Saturday that “no one will be spared” if the accident report determined who was responsible.
But he also reiterated his belief that such accidents are a result of fate.
“If there are guilty, they will be punished. But in doing so we submit to fate, to the will of God. This is essential for Muslims,” he said.
