Muslim men pray during Friday prayers in Soma, a district in Turkey's western province of Manisa yesterday. Photo: Osman Orsal

Riot police fired tear gas and water cannon to disperse several thousand protesters on Friday in a Turkish mining town still grieving the death of some 300 workers in the nation’s worst ever industrial disaster.

Anger has swept Turkey as the extent of the disaster became clear, with protests aimed at mine owners accused of ignoring safety for profit, and at Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan’s government, seen as too cosy with industry tycoons and insensitive in its reaction to the tragedy.

“Stop spraying us with water! Go spray the mine! Maybe you can finally put the fire out!” shouted one man among the crowd, which had been trying to march towards a statue in the town centre honouring miners when police blocked the route and sprayed from armoured trucks.

The confirmed death toll in the disaster reached 284, with 18 more people believed still to be trapped and unlikely to be brought out alive, three days after fire sent deadly carbon monoxide coursing through the mine.

Turkey has experienced a decade of rapid economic growth under Erdogan, but worker safety standards have failed to keep pace, leaving it with one of the world’s worst records.

It was like putting make-up on the mine

“No coal can warm the hearts of children whose fathers died in the mine,” read one hand-written sign in the crowd of mine workers and residents.

The police intervention in the mourning town could add to public anger towards Erdogan. He survived mass demonstrations and a corruption probe into his government over the past year to remain Turkey’s dominant politician, but now risks alienating conservative, working-class voters that form his party’s base.

Footage emerged of him apparently slapping a man as residents jeered and jostled his entourage when he visited Soma this week. The man, Taner Kuruca, said Erdogan had indeed slapped him and told Kanal D TV he was then beaten by the Prime Minister’s bodyguards.

Police have clashed with protesters in Turkey’s three biggest cities Istanbul, Ankara and Izmir in recent days. Anger was intensified by a photograph of an Erdogan aide kicking a protester held down by police special forces.

Officials from the mine held a tense news conference, giving their most detailed account so far of what had happened.

An unexplained build-up of heat was thought to have led part of the mine to collapse, fanning a blaze which spread rapidly more than two kilometres below the surface, the mine’s general manager Ramazan Dogru told a news conference.

The AK Party said the formerly state-run mine at Soma, 480 kilometres southwest of Istanbul, had been inspected 11 times over the past five years. It denied any suggestion of loopholes in mining safety regulations. But some mine workers questioned the inspection procedure.

“The inspections were carried out with a week’s notice from Ankara and we were instructed to get ready,” said one miner in Soma who gave his name as Ramazan, reluctant to identify himself further for fear of retribution by his employer. “It was like putting make-up on the mine.”