Hopes for 18 workers trapped in a coal mine in southern Turkey are fading.<br /><br />The men became stuck 300 metres underground at the pit in Ermenek in southern Kamaran province after part of it flooded.<br /><br />Hundreds of rescue workers have been trying to pump out water but Turkey’s energy minister said water levels had now gone higher than the area where the men were trapped.<br /><br />Around 16 miners managed to escape, some have blamed a lack of safety measures in place.<br /><br />Turkey’s emergency management agency says it believes the cause of the accident was a broken pipe in the mine.<br /><br />The accident comes just six months after another mining disaster in Soma in Turkey where more than 300 workers died.
