Advisor to Turkish prime minister kicks protestors after mine disaster

Women sang improvised ballads about the departed over freshly dug graves, even as backhoes carved row upon row of graves into the dirt and hearses lined up outside the cemetery with more victims of Turkey’s worst mining disaster.

Rescue teams recovered another eight victims, raising the death toll to 282, with some 142 people still unaccounted for, according to government figures. The disaster on Tuesday has set off protests around Turkey and thrown Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s presidential ambitions off stride. Blackening his reputation further, one of Erdogan’s aides was accused of kicking a protester on the ground.

At a graveyard in the western town of Soma, where coal mining has been the main industry for decades, women wailed loudly in an improvised display of mourning. They swayed and sang songs about their relatives as the bodies were taken from coffins and lowered into their graves. Pictures of the lost relatives were pinned onto their clothing.

“The love of my life is gone,” some sang, chanting the names of dead miners.

No miner has been brought out alive since dawn on Wednesday from the Soma coal mine where the explosion and fire took place. Many mourners said they spent their lives fearing something like this.

“The wives of the miners kiss their husbands in the morning. When they come back, even if they are five minutes late, everyone starts calling. You never know what is going to happen,” said Gulizar Donmez, 45, the daughter and wife of a miner and neighbour of one of the victims.

Energy minister Taner Yildiz announced that a fire inside the mine was dying down, offering hope that rescuers would soon be able to speed up their search for those missing.

Erdogan, who is expected soon to announce his candidacy for Turkey’s presidential election in August, was not welcome during his visit to the area on Wednesday.

He was forced to take refuge at a supermarket after angry crowds called him a murderer and a thief, in a reference to alleged corruption, and clashed with police.

Turkish media printed photographs they said were of an Erdogan aide kicking a protester who was on the ground and being held by special forces police. The papers identified the aide as Yusuf Yerkel.

The prime minister’s office distanced itself from the incident, with one official saying the issue was “his own personal matter.” The official, who was not authorised to give his name to the press without authorisation, confirmed there was a “melee” as Erdogan entered a building but denied Turkish media reports that he had thrown a punch.

Turkish president Abdullah Gul, visiting Soma, described the events in Soma as “a huge disaster.”

“The pain is felt by us all,” he said. The mood was more restrained than during Erdogan’s visit, though locals, angry at what they saw as the slow rescue operation, still shouted jibes at him, demanding more should be done to reach possible survivors.