DIDIM was in mourning this week after Turkey’s worst mining disaster claimed one of its sons – a married father of a three-year-old.

An explosion in a mine in the town of Soma, in the western province of Manisa on Tuesday May 13 caused the deaths of at least 282 workers and injured scores of others. But there are unofficial reports of hundreds of more dead lying in the mines.

It has emerged that one of those that died was 33-year-old Erdal Demirel, from Didim. He had worked at the mine for at least four years.

Mr Demirel, who was from Hisar Mahalessi, worked alongside his brothers Murat and Cengiz at the mines, where more than 6,000 people are employed.

Mr Demirel’s father, Hüseyin, (66), told local media that he understood that Erdal may have been close to finishing his shift at the time when the disaster struck.

He said: “We learned of the disaster from TV. We waited for him but he could not be found. I do not know how or why he died.” His body was found and returned to his family in Didim.

Erdal, who was married with a son, named Hüseyin, was buried on Thursday.

Meanwhile, chilling details of the disaster have begun to emerge and raised national and international focus on health and safety in the mines.

Fourteen miners who took shelter inside the only refuge chamber available at the Soma mine used oxygen masks in turns before perishing, response teams have said.

The disaster has drawn attention to the lack of refuge chambers in mines in Turkey. The accident revealed that the mine in Soma had just one chamber.

The 14 miners are thought to have entered the small chamber after realizing it would be impossible to exit the mine before running out of oxygen as the mine was being overwhelmed by deadly carbon monoxide gas due to fire.

They reportedly used the oxygen bottles available in the chamber in turns, passing the masks around until the air was exhausted. Rescue workers who entered the chamber found the bodies of the 14 piled one on top of the other.

President Abdullah Gul arrived Thursday in Soma, offering condolences after a tour at the site of the mine. “Without a doubt, we shouldn’t live through these pains, just as developed countries have minimized this kind of suffering,” Gul said, teary-eyed and voice cracking.

“We are face to face with a truly huge catastrophe; to heal its scars we all need to join hands and display great solidarity.”

Police fired tear gas and water cannons at thousands of protesters in İzmir on May 15, as a 24-hour strike got underway over the deadly mine explosion in Soma. Police intervened twice when around 20,000 protesters took to İzmir’s streets.

Four Turkish labor unions called for the national one-day strike after the disaster. Representing workers in a range of industries, the unions are angry over what they say are poor safety standards since the formerly state-run mine in Soma was leased to a private firm.  

“Hundreds of our worker brothers in Soma have been left to die from the very start by being forced to work in brutal production processes in order to achieve maximum profits,” a statement from the unions said.

An adviser of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan sparked outrage after being photographed while kicking a mourner in Soma on May 14, in the wake of the disaster.

Tension rose as the anger in the small mining town, where at least 282 workers lost their lives in the worst mining tragedy in Turkey’s history, turned against PM Erdoğan. Flanked by bodyguards, the prime minister faced boos and calls for his resignation.

Yusuf Yerkel, one of Erdoğan’s advisers, was then captured delivering an enraged kick at a grounded protester who was being held down by two soldiers.

According to witness accounts, the special forces were interrogating the protester after he kicked an official car belonging to the convoy of the prime minister.

Yerkel, who saw the scene as he was preparing to take a seat in the car assigned to him, reportedly ran at the protester, kicking him three or four times.

The visit was particularly tense for Erdoğan, who was forced to take shelter in a supermarket by his bodyguards as mourners surrounded his convoy, minutes after he made a public statement arguing that mine accidents were “typical” and citing global precedents – albeit from 19th century Britain – for the disaster.