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Soma 2014

13/05/2014 - Soma Mine - Explosion, Fire

Turkey's energy minister, Taner Yildiz, announced the end of the search effort while attending a funeral for some of the workers killed in the disaster.

He said 301 miners had been killed, while another 485 escaped or were rescued after the mine was rocked by an explosion last Tuesday (local time).

Government and company officials have denied that negligence caused the disaster, as opposition lawmakers raised questions about mine oversight, and a survivor said safety inspectors never visited the lower reaches of the mine.

The disaster has led to a number of angry protests throughout the country, fuelled by accusations of negligence by mine operators and what many saw as a heartless response from the government.

Prime minister Tayyip Erdogan has presided over a decade of rapid economic growth, but worker safety standards have failed to keep pace, leaving Turkey with one of the world's worst industrial accident records.

This accident claimed the lives of 301 people.