Four workers were trapped underground after a privately owned chrome mine collapsed in Elazig’s Palu district at around 10 am Turkey time, the country’s energy and natural resources ministry announced on X.
“One of them [the workers] was able to rescue himself from the dent on his own,” stated the ministry, adding that only one worker had been injured.
Turkey's Disaster Management Authority (AFAD) announced on X later in the day that its search and rescue teams rescued the three other workers from the mine.
A probe has been launched into the incident, according to the statement from the energy ministry.
The incident is the second of its kind this month. A landslide on February 13 struck another privately owned mine in Ilic, Erzincan province, leaving at least nine workers missing.
The Erzincan mine had been previously closed in 2020 due to a cyanide leak into the Euphrates River and was reopened two years later. The environment ministry said at the time that a stream leading to the river had been closed to prevent the contamination of its waters.
Turkey has a track record dotted with numerous mine-related incidents. An explosion at a coal mine on the Black Sea killed 41 workers in 2022, and in May 2014 a blast at a coal mine in the country’s western province of Manisa killed 301 workers. The blast sparked public outrage, with protesters demanding the resignation of then Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s government.
