At least 28 people have died in a massive explosion at a coal mine in northern Turkey. Health Minister Fahrettin Koca announced this latest figure on Twitter on Saturday.

According to this, at least 11 people were injured in the accident on Friday evening in the state-run mine in the Amasra district on the Black Sea. The Interior Ministry assumes that at least 15 miners are still trapped after the accident at a depth of about 300 meters, the state news agency Anadolou reported.

More than 15 hours after the explosion, rescue workers from the Turkish aid organization Red Crescent and civil protection tried to rescue people who had been buried, as shown in pictures from the TV channel NTV. Energy Minister Fatih Donmez said that mine gas had probably exploded in the mine, 300 kilometers northeast of the capital Ankara. However, the exact cause was still unclear. Smoke rose from the mine on Saturday. It is suspected that the fire will continue, NTV reported. The government wanted to hold a press conference on the accident on Saturday.

According to Turkey's Interior Minister Süleyman Soylu, 110 workers were in the mine at around 6:15 p.m. 58 miners have been rescued so far, Anadolou quoted the minister as saying.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Twitter that he would visit the scene of the accident on Saturday to "coordinate" rescue efforts. An investigation into the incident has been launched. The main opposition party, the social-democratic CHP, said the authorities had ignored a 2019 report by the Court of Auditors warning of a risk of a mine gas explosion at the mine.

There have been several serious mine accidents in Turkey in recent years, partly due to poor safety regulations. In 2014, an explosion at a coal mine in Manisa province in the Aegean region killed a total of 301 people.