The story of a father and his son who died along with 280 other people in the coal mine of Soma in Turkey causes sorrow and despair.

The Hurriyet newspaper published the sad story of two men, 43-year-old Huseyin Avkas and 19-year-old son Ferhat.

Huseyin Avkas had retired recently from mining, but in order to provide to his family a better life he continued working there. He was considered to be a good team leader.

His son, Fatih, was the first of his children who decided to work in the mine while the younger son Ferhat also started working there when he was 19.

According to the article, it is an unwritten law that miners who are members of the same family should not work the same shift, but for the Akvas family this was simply impossible. They wanted to work together.

On the day of the tragic accident Huseyin and Ferhat left the house together, but Fatih stayed home because he was sick.

In Soma, Huseyin Avkas was the leader of a group of 60 men, mostly young people, who had just caught a job there.

Huseyin left the team for a moment to make a call, while his son and his colleagues were hundreds of meters below the surface.

Then the explosion occurred.

Huseyin immediately realized how serious things were, but without hesitating he went down to the mine to get his son. While miners who were closer to the exit were trying to get out, Huseyin was running towards the opposite direction.

No one knows exactly what happened then. No one knows how they fought or what were their last words. But, Huseyin managed to find his son.

This is confirmed by a rescuer who saw father and son dead hugging each other…

Survivor reports shocking scenes

One of the survivors of the mine in Somma revealed the shocking scenes he saw just before reaching the surface.

As Hasan Ozdil said to Hurriyet : “I saw a worker with a belt around his neck trying to commit suicide. I went to the area a few meters above the point where the explosion took place. There was no oxygen left. Some of the workers who were there had hit their heads against the walls. The oxygen masks were not working. I have carried this mask for three years, but even now I do not know what good it does. The masks have to be inspected every six months, but no one has ever checked them.”

Ozdil added: “The explosion took place about 2,400 meters below the surface. I went into the mine. They were putting people in the conveying belt. There were about 50-60 workers there. My friends got on the conveying belt that carried people and died there…”.