The huge amount of water, accumulated in two galleries, flooded the disaster-hit gallery due to a lack of mine safety and uncontrolled mining activities, claimed miners, retired from the coal mine.
“Drilling is performed to determine how many meters will be dug in which gallery. The company did not perform a drilling to find out where the water is accumulated in the field. We actually consider the length of water underground during the digging activities,” he said.
Meanwhile, hundreds of rescuers have been still trying to pump out water, but water levels had been higher than the area where the 18 men had been trapped five days ago, possibly due to a broken pipe in the mine in Karaman, the south of Turkey. Rescue teams had to stop pumping efforts in the flooded mine in the town of Ermenek following a landslide early on Thursday.
Speaking on the disaster-hit area, Turkish Energy Minister Taner Yıldız refuted the claim which said that rescuers found three of 18 miners, who have been trapped inside after the coal mine was collapsed when it was inundated.
Yıldız was before the reporters after his inspectations along with Transportation Minister Lütfi Elvan and Labor Minister Faruk Çelik.
“We have not reached any worker yet. We will let you know when we find them,” he said. "It is not true to put forward a claim about where the miners could have been without noticing the scene behind the water."
RESCUE EFFORTS COULD TAKE MONTHS
An academic from the Çanakkale 18 Mart University said that the efforts aiming to find miners, trapped following the flood in the gallery, could take at least six months, because dust and mud, produced in activity points, turned into clay when they sucked underground water.