​Forty-one people died as a result of an explosion in a coal mine in the north of Turkey, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said, the BBC reports, News.ro reports.

The discovery of the last missing miner ended a rescue operation that lasted more than 20 hours after Friday’s deadly blast.

Also on Saturday, the Minister of Internal Affairs announced that 58 people who worked in the mine during the explosion were saved or got out on their own.

Suleiman Soylu reported that 10 people remained in the hospital, one was discharged.

During the explosion on Friday, there were about 110 people in the mine, almost half of them at a depth of more than 300 meters.

Emergency crews worked through the night and dug through the rock, trying to reach survivors.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, along with other ministers, visited the scene in Bartin province and confirmed that the last missing person had been found dead.

Authorities said Turkish prosecutors had begun an investigation into the cause of the incident, but preliminary reports suggested the explosion was caused by a build-up of methane.