SOMA: Riot police fired tear gas and water cannon to disperse several thousand protesters yesterday in a Turkish mining town still grieving the death of some 300 workers in the nation’s worst ever industrial disaster.
A crowd had been trying to march towards a statue in the town centre honouring miners when police blocked the route and sprayed from armoured trucks.
The confirmed death toll in the disaster reached 292 as Energy Minister Taner Yildiz said eight more bodies were found in the mine last evening. Some 10 more people were believed still trapped and unlikely to be alive.
