A landslide on Tuesday trapped at least nine workers at a gold mine in eastern Turkey, where search and rescue efforts were underway to locate the workers, Agence France-Presse reported, citing officials.
“At least nine people are trapped,” Erzincan Mayor Bekir Aksun was quoted as saying by the private NTV broadcaster.
Images from the scene showed the landslide sweeping across a valley where the workers were believed to have been based at the time.
Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya confirmed that there was no initial news from the nine workers.
The landslide occurred around 2:00 p.m. local time (1100 GMT) near the İliç district of Erzincan province.
Anagold, a private company that runs the mine, said it was working to minimize the effects of this “painful” incident.
“We will mobilize all our means in order to urgently shed light on this incident,” Anagold said in a statement.
Turkey is prone to deadly landslides and has suffered a string of mining accidents in recent decades.
A methane blast at a coal mine in northwestern Turkey killed 42 people in October 2022.
