28 miners go on hunger strike in northern Turkey over salary

Twenty-eight miners on a hunger strike inside a mine in Turkey's northern province of Zonguldak over unpaid salaries have blocked access to their location amid rising concerns over their health condition, Hurriyet News reported Friday.

"We haven't been able to get any news from inside since 4 p.m. (Thursday). They abandoned themselves to death," the miners' representative, Omer Kaplan, who exited the mine on Thursday after nine days due to health problem, told Hurriyet.

Turkish opposition party, the Republican People's Party's deputy chairperson Veli Agbaba told CNN Turk that the mine was blocked after police attempted to intervene.

Police are no longer permitting water, salt, sugar and fruit juice -- all of which are necessary items that need to be consumed by people on hunger strike -- into the mine, Agbaba said.

Some 245 miners at the facility have not been paid for nearly four months, and 85 opted to strike by refusing to leave the mine. Endit