"Non-stop search and rescue efforts to recover the trapped 14 others are still ongoing," said the Turkish Disaster and Emergency Authority, or AFAD,  in a written statement.  

There were 34 workers inside the mine located some 400 kilometers south of the capital, Ankara, in Karaman’s Ermenek district, when a water pipe exploded and caused the flood on Oct. 28. A total of 18 were said to be trapped in the mine. 

On Nov. 7, the bodies of two miners were found after 11 days of intense search and rescue efforts through slime created because of the necessary draining of the water from inside the mine.  

Non-stop efforts have been underway round-the-clock to save the trapped miners since the incident occurred.   

Ermenek District Courthouse ordered the arrest of five people who were referred to court over an accident which trapped 18 miners for "involuntarily causing death by negligence."

The arrested include: the owner of the mining company, Saffet Uyar, mining permit holder Abdullah Ozbey, operating manager Yavuz Ozsoy, mining company manager Mehmet Zeybek and mining engineer Ali Kurt.

However, the other three suspects -- two engineers and a labor safety expert -- were released on condition of judicial review.

There were 34 workers inside the mine -- located some 400 kilometers south of the capital, Ankara -- when a water pipe exploded and caused the flood on October 28.

On Thursday, search and rescue teams found the bodies of two of the 18 workers trapped in the flooded mine.

Rescue efforts to retrieve the remaining workers' bodies are ongoing, but were "becoming progressively harder" in the deeper areas of the mine, Turkish Energy Minister Taner Yildiz said on Friday.

Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu is set to announce on Wednesday essential amendments to be made to laws on labor safety and mining, according to Deputy Premier Bulent Arinc.

Operations for the remaining 16 workers will continue after levels of methane in the coal mine have decreased. "Levels of methane gas increased slightly and rescue workers had to be removed from the scene temporarily for safety reasons," Yıldız said. said.

There were 34 workers inside the mine in the province of Karaman's Ermenek district, when a pipe exploded and caused the flood on October 28.

The bodies were due to be sent to the district's hospital to identify the deceased miners.  "The bodies of our brothers will be transfered to Ermenek State Hospital. DNA tests will be conducted with the families for the identification of the bodies if prosecutors agree with it," the minister said.

Ermenek public prosecutor’s office demanded that the mine officials to be on probation for their possible responsibility in the disaster.

Security measures were increased around the mine and a security cordon was put in place. The relatives of the remaining miners have been still waiting for their relatives' bodies.

Eighteen coal miners have been trapped for nine days after their shaft was engulfed by floodwater during mining activities in the privately-run coal mine in the town of Ermenek, Karaman.

Tezcan Gökçe, the elderly couple's son, is one of the miners who has been stranded in the gallery which is 350 meters in length. Even though the authorities have said that the odds are close to zero that any of the 18 have survived until now, many of the relatives are not convinced until they get some type of tangible result. They keep hoping that their loved one trapped below ground will somehow surface with the rescue efforts.

“I have lost  my baby. I am still awaiting his arrival by sitting by the window,” said Ayşe Gökçe, speaking to reporters at home. Gökçe reiterated she wants her kid back well and safe, but there is nobody coming back. “What else would I want at such a late age,” she asked.

The briefly-stricken mother’s moaning, “My son would not know about swimming. What would he be doing underground in the flooded water?” has appeared to represent the biggest symbol of national lamenting for the loss of miners still trapped underground.

Meanwhile, Turkey's Minister of Energy and Natural Resources Taner Yıldız made an announcement on the 9th day of the mining disaster's rescue efforts. "All of the debts of the trapped 18 miners have been erased and the credit for the small  businesses will be delayed without interest for three months," he said.

A preliminary report into the tragic accident at the mine, operated by Has Şekerler Company, was declared by the Ermenek public prosecutor’s office on Wednesday.

The report, submitted by an expert committee after a three-day search, pointed at a sudden flooding into the operational unit through a weakened jamb which stemmed from the  accumulation of water into the old production area over the past years.  The report suggested that the huge amount of water has gradually exceeded the threshold value of water pressure before the flash floods engulfed the shaft where the miners are still trapped.

“There was excessive mining activity every day more than the previous day through the mine shafts leading to the other galleries, which accumulated water from the disaster-hit gallery. Walls of the collapsed gallery could not withstand the heaviness of the water increased in the galleries on both sides of it,” said a retired worker who refused to be named.

“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.

“The clay will remain there although the water is pumped out. The water has seriously damaged the fortification of the mine. A period of 6 months could be needed to reach the miners, maybe longer than six months,” he said.

Since the incident occurred on Tuesday, news reports said that 18 miners have become trapped in the Has Şekerler coal mine that became flooded with water. More than 350 emergency workers toiled to reach miners believed to be trapped in the mine near the town of Ermenek in Turkey’s Karaman province.

According to reports, workers, who were working for Has Şekerler mine, were deprived of daily food allowance and their rights to use the shuttle bus to commute between home and office. Saffet Uyar, the owner of Has Şekerler mining, usurped the right of the miners to receive coal under their collective labor contract. The worse is that workers were not paid their salaries for three months. 

Nazmiye Çolak, the wife of Hüseyin Çolak, 42, who has been trapped underground after the mine collapse, said that the company had even cut providing the miners’ coal allowance.

“My husband is working for a coal mine, but we do not have any coal to make our house warm,” said Çolak. “They offered to sell coal to us, in exchange of money, but they have not paid the salaries for three months.”

Hüseyin Çolak, a father of two, could not visit his newly-born grand child, because he was suffering serious financial difficulties, said the miners.

The owner, Uyar, served as mayor for three terms in the Güzelyurt district of Turkey's Karaman province. According to miners, Uyar has placed a copy of the Holy Quran in front of the coal mine and forced them to swear whether they voted in favor of him. The miners said that some of them were dismissed, because they refused to swear to vote for him.

The former mayor, who has run an oil office in Güzelyurt and a coal mine in Söke in the western province of Muğla, has allegedly employed subcontracted workers.

According to miners, Uyar has forged official documents by falsely displaying the miners and other workers at his other company as working for the mining company during the inspections by the ministry.

It was also revealed that Uyar has used electricity illegally in the Şekerler mine in Ermenek. Has Şekerler Company created illegal connections with the power grid, because the power management cut the company’s power as it has not paid the bill valued at 32,000 YTL.

The miners said that the officials, who were sent from power management to inspect the mine following the collapse, confirmed that the company was, in fact, stealing electricity illegally.

The miners got trapped Tuesday when a water pipe inside a private lignite mine exploded near the Ermenek town in Karaman province, around 400 kilometers south of Ankara. Earlier reports suggested there were at least 40 miners trapped inside, but latest figures from the minister revealed there were in total 34 miners, out of whom 18 remain stuck.

About the difficulties in the search-and-rescue mission, Yildiz told reporters that divers faced limited visibility in the flooded mine.

"The visibility distance in the water is not even one meter. Divers will not manage to dive even three or four meters, which will pose threat to their lives," the minister said.

Because of safety concerns for the divers, he added "we cannot instruct them to dive the flooded mine."

Also Wednesday, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan cancelled the Republic Day reception because of the ongoing coal mine rescue efforts.

Erdogan told reporters he and Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu would also visit the accident site soon.

Earlier, the energy minister said the water inside the collapsed mine had begun to recede after rescue teams deployed a second pump to flush out the water.

"The pump we have newly set up has begun to yield results and the water level is falling. Not as quickly as we want, but it is falling," Yildiz said.

The Disaster and Emergency Management Authority of Turkey, or the AFAD, had said earlier that a 225-person team was on site for the search-and-rescue mission.

"Two aircraft, 20 ambulances and eight AFAD rescue vehicles continue their search-and-rescue efforts. One mobile base station has been set up at the scene and adequate food packets have also been delivered," it said Tuesday.

Apart from Yildiz, the Transport, Maritime Affairs and Communications Minister, Lutfi Elvan, and Labor and Social Security Minister Faruk Celik are on the spot to monitor the situation.

"Twenty workers are still trapped in the mine, but we evacuated around 25," Koca said.

Turkey's emergency and disaster agency and its search and rescue squads have been dispatched to the area, the governor said.

The mine collapsed after water flooded inside, he said.