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Download Rescuers raced desperately against time to reach more than 200 miners trapped underground on Wednesday after an explosion and fire at a coal mine in western Turkey killed at least 238 workers, authorities said. Energy Minister Taner Yildiz said 787 people were inside the coal mine in Soma, about 250 kilometers south of Istanbul, at the time of the explosion, and 363 of them had been rescued so far. Yildiz said he is worried that the number of deaths could increase. "The problem is more serious than we thought. It is developing into an accident with the highest worker death toll Turkey has seen so far," he said. Turkey's worst mining disaster was a 1992 gas explosion that killed 263 workers near the Black Sea port of Zonguldak. As bodies were brought out on stretchers, rescue workers pulled blankets back from the faces of the dead to give jostling crowds of anxious family members a chance to identify victims. One elderly man wearing a prayer cap wailed after here cognized one of the dead, and police restrained him from climbing into an ambulance with the body. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan declared three days of national mourning, ordering flags to be lowered to half-staff. Erdogan postponed a one-day visit to Albania and planned to visit Soma instead. Fifty-seven people were confirmed injured, Yildiz told reporters in Soma, where he was overseeing operations by more than400 rescuers. He had earlier put the injured total at 80, including four in serious condition. | 
