Coal mine blast in northern Turkey kills 3, leaves 5 hurt

ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — A methane gas explosion inside a mine in northern Turkey on Friday killed three workers and injured five others, state media reported.

The explosion occurred in a privately owned coal mine near the town of Kilimli, in the Black Sea coastal province of Zonguldak, state broadcaster TRT reported. An investigation has been launched into the incident.

Osman Hacibektasoglu, the governor of Zonguldak, told reporters that two of the injured miners were in serious condition and were being taken to the capital, Ankara, for treatment.

Earlier, the governor reported that the explosion killed two people and that rescuers were trying to reach one person trapped inside the mine. TRT said, however, that the third miner had also died in the explosion.

Mine accidents are not uncommon in Turkey. The independent monitoring group, Worker Health and Work Safety Assembly, or ISIG, reported that 1,267 miners were killed in workplace accidents between 2013 and 2025, mostly from incidents of cave-ins and suffocation.

In one of the country’s worst mine disasters, a total of 301 people died in 2014 in a fire inside a coal mine in the town of Soma, in western Turkey.