Ankara (Turkey): An explosion followed by fire in mines of Turkey have killed at least 17 mine workers while hundreds feared to have trapped inside.
The disaster agency of Turkey has said that it has launched a massive rescue operation in association with the mine blast.
According to the local official sources, there was an explosion from the power distribution unit located near a mine in the town of Soma.
The town is about 250 kilometers (155 miles) south of Istanbul.
Turkey’s disaster and emergency management agency has revealed that they have rescued about 20 people from the blast site so far while 11 of them are succumbed to injuries.
As per the Television telecast, people were found cheering and applauding as some trapped workers could come out of the mine.
Since the accident was occurred during a shift change, the exact number of trapped workers were unknown.
As per the report, about 200 to 300 miners were under the ground at the time of the blast, but the disaster agency later revealed that more than 200 workers have been trapped under the ground.
They are of the good hope that they could rescue all of them.
At the same time they are not ruling out the high possibilities to rise the death toll.
Mining accidents are common in Turkey, even then, they adopt poor safety conditions.
The worst mining disaster in Turkey was during a gas explosion that occurred in 1992.
In that unfortunate incident, 263 workers were killed near the Black Sea port of Zonguldak.

Video on Turkey mine blast