Turkey coal-mine explosion kills at least 245

Rescue teams recovered eight more victims of Turkey's worst mining accident on Thursday, raising the number of dead to 282 in a disaster that has thrown Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's presidential ambitions off stride.

Although 363 miners were rescued in the western mining town of Soma, some 150 more have not been accounted for. No miner has been brought out alive since early Wednesday.

Erdogan, who is expected to soon announce his candidacy for presidential elections in August, was forced to take refuge at a supermarket during his visit to the area Wednesday after angry crowds called him a murderer and thief and clashed with police.

Erdogan had earlier downplayed the disaster, calling mining accidents "ordinary things" that also occur in many other countries, after giving examples of 19th-century mine accidents in Britain.