Three workers killed in coal mine in Kurdish province, Turkey

Bodies of the deceased workers were retrieved hours later from a water-filled well in the former mine.

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region (Kurdistan 24) – Three mine workers, two of them brothers, drowned on Monday when they fell in a water-filled well at the site of a former coal mine in the Kurdish Sirnak Province in Turkey.

The men identified as Abdurrahman Tunc, Omer Tunc, and Idris Inal went to the mine to bring back some material they had left behind, Kurdistan 24’s Diyarbakir bureau reported.

The Tunc brothers fell into the deep well first, upon which Inal descended with the help of an electric generator to rescue them. However, the generator stopped, and he too was stuck.

Rescue teams, as well as ambulances, rushed to the scene under heavy security as a search team was called on duty from the neighboring Van Province.

They managed to retrieve the bodies of the deceased workers hours later.

In October, eight workers died in a collapse at the same mine near the Balveren district (Gundikê Melê in Kurdish) on the outskirts of the Mount Judi close to the Turkish border with the Kurdistan Region.

The privately-owned Dogan news agency said the Tunc brothers had lost another sibling, Ahmet, in an accident at the same mine in 2009.

An investigation by authorities was underway.

Sirnak is rich in resources such as oil and coal. Many mines operate in its mountainous terrain where Turkish government forces and Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) fighters often clash.

Last year, a copper mine collapse killed 10 workers in the neighboring province of Siirt.

 

Editing by Karzan Sulaivany