Turkey mine disaster toll rises to 284

Ankara, May 16 (IANS) The toll in Turkey's coal mine disaster has reached 284, making it the country's worst industrial disaster in history, Energy Minister Taner Yildiz said Friday.

"I say this number based on families' testimonies and the documents provided by the company. We saw that there were workers who entered back into the mine during the shift change," Yildiz said.

A total of 787 people were inside the mine in Soma, 250 km south of Istanbul, when the disaster occurred Tuesday, Xinhua reported.

Most of the victims died of carbon monoxide poisoning.

The accident occurred as the workers were preparing for a shift change, officials said. This might have raised the toll because there were more miners inside than usual.

The explosion occurred at a power distribution unit two km below the surface, which caused the mine's elevator to stop working. A fire broke out after the explosion.

The accident has sparked anti-government protests in Istanbul, Ankara, Izmir, Antalya and other cities, which blamed the government and mine companies of "negligence".

Mining accidents kill dozens of miners each year in Turkey.

Prior to this, the worst mining tragedy in Turkey occurred in 1992 when a fire and explosion killed 263 people.