Three people were arrested on charges of negligence over the Turkish mining disaster in which 301 people died, a prosecutor said today.

Anger and grief boiled over into a violent protest in the western Turkish town of Soma, where officials said at least 274 miners died in a coal mine explosion and fire.

Women wailed uncontrollably, men knelt sobbing and others just stared in disbelief outside a coal mine in western Turkey as rescue workers removed a steady stream of bodies from an underground explosion and fire that killed at least 238 workers.