Turkish police on Wednesday fired tear gas and water cannon at hundreds of people protesting an explosion at a mine that has killed at least 205 people and left scores of workers trapped.

Around 800 protesters, mostly students, hurled stones at the police and shouted anti-government slogans as they tried to march from a university in Ankara to the energy ministry, an AFP photographer said.

Separately, some 10-15 people lay on the floor of the Istanbul metro at Taksim station to represent the deaths at the mine, another AFP photographer reported.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan arrived on Wednesday at the site of the accident in the western town of Soma, in Manisa province.

An electrical fault at the coal mine the day before triggered a collapse, and has provoked allegations of negligence on the part of the government over safety conditions.

Hundreds of family and friends have gathered at the site, where an estimated 100-150 workers are still thought to be trapped underground in what is likely to be the country's worst ever industrial disaster.