An 800-strong rescue operation is currently underway to rescue at least nine workers trapped in a gold mine swept away by a massive landslide in eastern Turkey.
The landslide hit the Kobler mine in the town of Ilic turkeyIn the mountainous province of Erzincan on Tuesday.
The footage showed a huge mass of earth hurtling down a gully, sweeping away everything in its path.
An ambulance leaves the Cobbler Gold Mine. Photo: AP
Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya said the landslide was caused by a pile of soil extracted from the mine.
About 800 search and rescue personnel, including police, military, mine rescue teams and volunteers, were deployed in the operation.
Other workers in the mine also joined the rescue efforts of their colleagues, while the families of the missing waited for news in an area near the mine.
An investigation into the disaster has begun.
Cyanide danger
The landslide could also cause major environmental risks, according to an expert.
Geologist Suleiman Bambale said the soil that formed the landslide had been processed to extract gold and may contain dangerous substances such as cyanide, which is used to extract gold.
He also warned of the threat of the nearby Euphrates River.
The soil that formed the landslide may contain cyanide. Photo: AP
The Ministry of Environment said that a stream leading to the river was closed to prevent water pollution.
The Kubler gold mine was previously closed in 2020 after a cyanide leak into the Euphrates River, which runs through Turkey, Syria and Iraq.
The mine was reopened two years later after the company was fined and the cleanup process was completed.
Read more:
Everything you want to know about the Pakistani elections
Ukraine says a Russian warship was destroyed off the coast of Crimea
The destruction of Sudan's famous street market is a massacre of memory
Türkiye has a poor mine safety record. Explosion at the Amasra coal mine on the Black Sea coast in 2022 41 workers killed.
The country's worst mining disaster occurred in 2014 at a coal mine in Soma, western Turkey, where 301 people were killed.
After these accidents, engineers warned that safety risks in mines are often ignored and inspections are not conducted adequately.
