Forty confirmed dead in coal mine blast in Turkey

A relative of a missing miner breaks down outside the site (Khalil Hamra/AP)

The death toll from a coal mine explosion in northern Turkey has increased to at least 40 people.

Desperate relatives had waited all night in the cold outside the state-owned TTK Amasra Muessese Mudurlugu mine in the town of Amasra, in the Black Sea coastal province of Bartin, hoping for news.