Turkey's energy minister says a new fire and increased gas levels inside the mine in Soma are hampering search efforts for the estimated two or three miners still believed trapped underground.
Minister Taner Yildiz said Saturday that emergency crews had retrieved the body of one more miner overnight before the new fire broke out. That brings the death toll in Turkey’s worst mining disaster to 299. He also said there are still dozens of workers missing, but no one else is expected to come out alive.
Government and company officials have denied that negligence caused the disaster in the country’s western region. But opposition lawmakers have raised questions about possible lax oversight. One worker who survived said safety inspectors never visited the lower reaches of the mine.