Emergency workers are battling to save 18 Turkish miners trapped deep underground after a coal mine collapsed, letting in a deluge of water.
Rescue efforts were continuing on Tuesday as night drew in at the mine in the district of Ermenek in Turkey's southern province of Karaman, with workers loading a massive blue pipe down the shaft in a bid to syphon out the water.
The accident was the latest disaster to hit the Turkish mining industry after 301 workers were killed in May in an explosion at a mine in Soma in the west of the country.
There were 40 miners underground at the time of the accident in Ermenek, regional governor Murat Koca told Turkish television.
"The gallery they were working in was flooded by water," he said, rejecting earlier reports that the accident was caused by an explosion.
He said around half the miners had managed to reach the surface after the accident. But fears were growing over the fate of the remaining workers who were believed to be 300 metres underground.
"We think there are 18 people still underground. They will be able to hold out for two more hours at a maximum," Sahin Uyar of the mine's owner Has Sekerler told CNN-Turk television.
The government came under fire over its response to the Soma disaster and Energy Minister Taner Yildiz and Transport Minister Lutfi Elvan were quick to head to the scene of Tuesday's accident.
Turkey's emergency management agency AFAD has despatched 200 workers to supervise rescue efforts.
The Soma disaster sparked a wave of fury against then prime minister -- now President -- Recep Tayyip Erdogan who was accused of indifference to the plight of the victims.
It also reignited concerns over lax safety in a country with the highest rate of workplace fatalities in Europe, according to the International Labour Organisation (ILO).
Most of the victims at Soma died of carbon monoxide poisoning after a huge explosion that trapped hundreds of workers underground.
Eight members of the management team at the company operating the Soma mine -- Soma Komur -- were charged in May with manslaughter.
A new law took effect in September to tighten standards at mines in response to criticism of bad working conditions for Turkish miners.
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