201 dead, 80 injured in coal mine explosion in Turkey

At least 201 workers have reportedly been killed and many injured in an explosion at a coal mine on Tuesday in western Turkey.

Energy Minister Taner Yildiz said that 787 people had been inside the privately owned mine at Soma in Manisa province, which is about 450 km west of the capital Ankara, when an electrical fault triggered the blast.

According to the BBC, although rescuers are working hard to try to reach hundreds more miners still trapped underground, the picture however, looks gloomier as the hours pass.

Confirming the latest death toll, Yildiz said that some 80 people had been injured in the explosion, adding that of the workers inside the mine at the time of the accident, only about 360 of them - including those killed - had been accounted for.

Yildiz further said that carbon monoxide poisoning had claimed many lives, adding that oxygen was being pumped into the mine to help those still trapped.

The electrical fault triggered a power cut, making the mine cages unusable and the report added that those trapped are reported to be 2 km below the surface and 4 km from the mine entrance.