(Bloomberg) — A Turkish coal mine where more than 280 workers were killed by a fire this week didn't have a rescue chamber, which isn't required by law, the company's owner said.

"Rescue chambers are not obligatory under the mining law," Alp Gurkan, chairman of Soma Mining, told a televised press conference today. He said the company would build such rooms in a few months so that miners could take shelter there in the event of another accident.

The fire that broke out at the Soma mine in western Turkey on May 13 has killed at least 284 miners, the worst such incident in the country's history. Another 18 people remain trapped underground, the company's chief executive officer, Ramazan Dogru, said today.

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