Turkey mine fire: Accusations of neglect …..rescue efforts temporarily suspended
Turkey’s President spoke words of comfort to loved-ones of the nearly 300 miners who have died in a mine fire, a day after the Prime Minister was blasted over comments seen as insensitive.
The deadly mine fire in Turkey is a “sorrow for the whole Turkish nation,” President Abdullah Gul told reporters Thursday. He offered his condolences to the victims’ families.
Onlookers listened silently until a man interrupted Gul with shouts: “Please, president! Help us, please!”
An investigation into the deadly Turkey mine disaster has begun, Gul said. “I’m sure this will shed light” on what regulations are needed. “Whatever is necessary will be done,” he said.
He commended mining as a precious profession.
“There’s no doubt that mining and working … to earn your bread underground perhaps is the most sacred” of undertakings, he told reporters.
Gul had entered the mine site with an entourage of many dozens of people — mostly men in dark suits — walking through a crowd of rescue workers who were standing behind loosely assembled police barricades.
Resigned boredom marked the workers’ faces after they had stood and sat outside the mine for hours, idle and waiting. Some of them had passed the time talking on cell phones, others smoking or taking off their hard hats and burying their faces in their hands.
With hope of finding survivors nearly gone, it appeared there was little they could do.
At the mine, there was little sign of the anger that is rife in Turkey over the accident. Unions have called for strikes across the country Thursday.
(CNN