Mining disaster death toll rises to 282

SOMA (AP):

Women sang songs about departed miners yesterday over the graves of relatives killed in Turkey's worst mining accident, even as more hearses pulled up and backhoes dug more graves around them.

Rescue teams recovered eight more victims, raising the death toll to 282, with 142 people still unaccounted for. The disaster Tuesday has set off protests around Turkey and thrown Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's presidential ambitions off stride. Blackening his reputation further, one of Erdogan's aides was accused of attacking a protester on the ground.

In the western town of Soma, where coal mining has been the main industry for decades, women wailed and sang songs about their relatives as bodies were taken from coffins and lowered into their graves. Pictures of the lost relatives were pinned on to their clothing.

No survivors found

No miner has been brought out alive since dawn Wednesday from the coal mine where the explosion and fire took place. Many mourners said they spent their whole lives fearing something like this.

"The wives of the miners kiss their husbands in the morning. When they come back, even if they are five minutes late, everyone starts calling. You never know what is going to happen," said Gulizar Donmez, 45, the daughter and wife of a miner and neighbour of one of the victims.

Erdogan, who is expected to soon announce his candidacy for Turkey's presidential election in August, was not welcome. He was forced to take refuge at a supermarket during his visit to the area on Wednesday, after angry crowds called him a murderer and thief and clashed with police. Turkish newspapers Cumhuriyet and Milliyet yesterday printed photographs they said were of an Erdogan aide kicking a protester who was on the ground and being held by special forces police during the scuffles. The papers identified the aide as Yusuf Yerkel.