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- Official death toll at 205
- More than 200 workers are still stranded, disaster agency says
- Only 363 of 787 workers who work at the mine are accounted for, energy minister says
- Clean air is being pumped to parts of the mine where there is no fire
(CNN) -- As a crowd milled around with downcast eyes outside a coal mine in western Turkey on Wednesday, a miner dashed their hopes that his co-workers still stuck inside would make it out alive.
There are 200 of them trapped in the shaft about two-thirds of a mile -- or 1 kilometer -- underground, disaster officials have said.
He and some friends had crawled out of the burning mine in the town of Soma on their own, he told a reporter from CNN's sister network CNN Turk.
Rescue workers and relatives gather at a coal mine in the western Turkish province of Manisa on Tuesday, May 13. A fire caused by a transformer explosion in the coal mine left more than 160 people dead and trapped hundreds more, officials said.
Relatives try to get information outside a hospital in Soma, Turkey, after the explosion and fire.
An injured miner is carried out by rescue workers. The mine shaft is about two-thirds of a mile -- or 1 kilometer -- underground, a disaster agency said.
Miners stand by after the explosion. About 100 rescuers, dozens of ambulances and helicopters were dispatched to the scene.
Miners and relatives wait outside the mine. Turkish Energy Minister Taner Yildiz said officials turned an exit pipe "into a clean air pipe," so "there is fresh air being given in places where there is no fire."
Turkish women await news of their relatives who are trapped underground.
Rescue operations continue at the site of the accident.
A massive crowd watches as rescuers work into the night.
Coal mine explosion in Turkey
Coal mine explosion in Turkey
Coal mine explosion in Turkey
Coal mine explosion in Turkey
Coal mine explosion in Turkey
Coal mine explosion in Turkey
Coal mine explosion in Turkey
Coal mine explosion in Turkey
Photos: Coal mine explosion in Turkey
Families hold vigil outside Turkish mine
He choked up as he said that he can't imagine anyone else having the same luck.
The fire that killed at least 205 workers after a transformer blew up, was still burning and preventing help from getting to them, Turkey's energy minister said.
"Rescue operations will continue once smoke and CO2 levels are minimized," Taner Yildiz told reporters.
'Our hopes are diminishing'
During the night, emergency crews had hauled up 88 survivors, as a crowd looked on in the post-midnight darkness. All but eight were injured.
CNN Turk aired the rescue of one miner to a cheering crowd.
But progress has stopped. "Our hopes are diminishing," Yildiz said. He had no official update of the death toll, but he expected it to rise.
Officials have carried out 72 autopsies. The dead and injured seemed to be suffering from burns and suffocation, said the region's member of parliament Muzaffer Yurttas.
About 100 rescuers, dozens of ambulances and helicopters were dispatched to the scene.
They have pumped fresh air down into the shaft to areas not engulfed in flames, Yildiz said.
Turkey's Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan cancelled a visit to Albania and is traveling to Soma to offer comfort to those whose loved-ones are trapped inside the mine.
2 West Virginia coal miners killed
CNN's Dana Ford contributed to this report.
