Turkish inister says Karaman mining accident no ‘natural disaster’ as poor safety record revealed

Efforts were still ongoing to rescue the 18 workers still trapped underground at a mine in Turkey’s Karaman province on Oct. 31, as officials adopted a harsher tone against the company operating the site, which had described the flooding of the facility as a “natural disaster,” Hurriyet Daily News reports.

“I beg your pardon, but this is no natural disaster,” Energy Minister Taner Yıldız told reporters on Oct. 30.

“We have to share the situation accurately with the public. We can call a flooding a natural disaster if it happens after causes that we can’t control, such as an earthquake. But this is not a natural disaster, and where there is no natural disaster there is a fault,” he added.

Rescue works have been focused on reducing the amount of water inside the gallery, though there have been no signs of life from the 18 miners trapped since Oct. 28.