Death toll at Turkey mine blast passes 200

An explosion and fire in a Turkish coal mine killed 201 people and the death toll could rise with hundreds more still trapped, the country's energy minister has said.

Speaking to reporters at the scene of the disaster on Tuesday, Energy Minister Taner Yildiz said 787 workers were inside the mine when the blast hit a power unit. Another 76 people were injured and hospitalised, he said.

Yildiz said most of the deaths were the result of carbon monoxide poisoning.

"Time is working against us," Yildiz said, adding that some of the workers were 420 metres deep inside the mine, located in the town of Soma, about 250km south of Istanbul.

He said some 400 rescuers were involved in the operation.

Television footage showed people cheering and applauding as some trapped workers emerged out of the mine, helped by rescuers, their faces and hard-hats covered in soot.

Hundreds trapped

Authorities had earlier said that the blast left between 200 to 300 miners underground and were preparing for the possibility that the death toll could jump dramatically, making arrangements to set up a cold storage facility to hold the corpses of miners recovered from the site.

Earlier reports from Turkey's disaster and emergency management agency put the death toll at 17, with up to 300 men still trapped in the mine.

In televised comments, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said "evacuation efforts are under way. I hope that we are able to rescue them". Erdogan postponed a one-day visit to Albania scheduled for Wednesday and planned to visit Soma instead.

The rescue effort was being hampered by the fact that the mine was made up of tunnels that were kilometres long, said Cengiz Ergun, the leader of Manisa province, where the town is located.

Hundreds of people gathered outside the mine and the hospital in Soma seeking news of their loved ones.

"Our main priority is to get our workers out so that they may be reunited with their loved ones," the company said in a statement.

Mining accidents are common in Turkey, which is plagued by poor safety conditions.

Turkey's worst mining disaster was a 1992 gas explosion that killed 263 workers near the Black Sea port of Zonguldak.