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Turkey detains 25 over deadly mine blast / Photo: © AFP
Turkey detains 25 over deadly mine blast
Turkish authorities on Thursday detained 25 suspects including the director of a state-owned mine in northwest Turkey, after an explosion there this month killed 41 people, local media reported.
The blast ripped through the mine near the small coal town of Amasra on Turkey's Black Sea coast on October 14.
The 25 detainees included the mine's director Cihat Ozdemir, according to the Anadolu news agency.
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has pledged a full inquiry into the blast, saying "nobody will be spared" if the accident report determines who is responsible.
Relatives of the dead told AFP and Turkish media that miners had complained of the smell of gas in the mine for about 10 days before the explosion.
The opposition has accused the government of failing to take the necessary measures to prevent the disaster.
Turkey suffered its deadliest coal mining disaster in 2014 when 301 workers died in a blast and ensuing fire that brought down a mining shaft in the western town of Soma.
W.Thompson--SFF
