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Turkey mine collapse kills 13 workers

The Turkish government on Wednesday said 13 workers were killed in a coal mine collapse in northwestern Turkey, not 17 as previously reported.
/ Source: The Associated Press

The Turkish government on Wednesday said 13 workers were killed in a coal mine collapse in northwestern Turkey, not 17 as previously reported.

Labor Minister Omer Dincer said four of the bodies had been counted twice because they were taken to separate hospitals after a methane gas explosion caused an underground chamber in the mine to collapse Tuesday.

Dincer said at least four of the 18 workers who were hospitalized with severe burns are still in critical condition.

It was the second deadly explosion at the mine near the town of Dursunbey in Balikesir province in four years. Seventeen workers were killed in the same mine in a similar blast in 2006.

In December, a similar accident killed 19 miners in neighboring Bursa province. Safety violations and outdated equipment have been factors in past mine accidents in the country.

In Turkey's worst mining disaster, a gas explosion killed 270 workers near the Black Sea port of Zonguldak in 1992.