Energy Minister Taner Yildiz said 787 people had been inside the coal mine at the time of yesterday's explosion: 274 had died, 363 had been rescued and scores of them were injured.
The death toll topped a 1992 gas explosion that killed 263 workers near Turkey's Black Sea port of Zonguldak.
It also left 150 miners still unaccounted for. Erdogan said today that 120 miners were still missing. There was no immediate way to reconcile the differing figures.
Rescuers were still trying to vent out the carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide and pump clean air into the mine, according to mine owner Soma Komur Isletmeleri A S.
Yildiz said rescue workers were trying to reach the bodies of 20-22 people trapped in one specific zone. Some of the workers had been up to 420 meters deep inside the mine, he said.
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