Turkey’s President visits the town of Soma, scene of the mining disaster, to offer his condolences.

Turkey’s President Abdullah Gul called on every Turkish national to show solidarity in order to heal wounds of the mining disaster that occurred in the town of Soma in the province of Manisa, western Turkey.
Visiting the disaster scene with Parliament Speaker Cemil Cicek on Thursday, Gul gave his condolences to the relatives of the miners killed adding that meticulous judicial probes are continuing.
President Gul called on Turks to be “unified… to get over these hard times” during his visit to Soma.
The country’s energy minister, Taner Yildiz, who earlier amending the death toll to 282 from the disaster, informed the president about the latest developments and rescue efforts.
The exact cause of the blast has yet to be officially announced, but it is suspected that an explosion and fire followed an electrical fault. Yildiz has ruled out the possibility of firedamp or a methane gas explosion, saying most of the deaths were due to carbon monoxide poisoning.
Meanwhile, Armenia’s President Serzh Sargsyan, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Prime Minister Ismail Haniyah have sent their condolences over the disaster.
In addition, Turkish representatives in Kosovo, Israel, Serbia and Italy held commemorative ceremonies and opened condolence books./worldbulletin/