Coal mine collapses in northern Turkey, killing 1 miner and injuring 3 others

ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — A section of a coal mine collapsed in northern Turkey on Wednesday, leaving one miner dead and injuring three others, officials said.

There were 280 workers inside the Armutcuk coal mine near the town of Eregli in northern Zonguldak province but only four miners were working in the section that caved in, Gov. Osman Hacibektasoglu told NTV television.

The cause of the collapse was not immediately known.

Three of the miners were brought out with injuries and two of them were in critical condition in hospital, the governor said.

Families rushed to the entrance of the coal mine for news of their loved ones, television footage showed.

Turkey’s worst mine disaster was in 2014, when 301 miners died after a fire erupted inside a coal mine in the town of Soma, in the west of the country. Last year, an explosion in another coal mine in northern Turkey killed 41 people.