Soma, Turkey (CNN) -- Three days after an explosion and fire tore through a mine in western Turkey, 18 miners are feared still to be trapped below ground, Energy Minister Taner Yildiz said Friday.
Yildiz told reporters at a news conference that the confirmed death toll is now 284.
But this could rise to as many as 302, he said, if the 18 men thought still to be in the Soma coal mine have all died following the blaze.
Previous estimates had put the number of missing miners at over 100.
What has become more of a recovery effort than a rescue continued Friday.
Smoke and fumes are hindering efforts to reach those still missing below the surface and hope is dwindling that any more survivors will be found.
It was only in the first 24 hours after Tuesday's blast that anyone was pulled out alive. Autopsies have revealed that those killed after the blast and fire, which officials have said was started by an electrical problem, died of carbon monoxide poisoning.
Kicking a protester
Earlier this week, the image of an aide to Turkey's Prime Minister kicking a man protesting the coal mine fire prompted outrage -- and has become a symbol of the anger felt against the government.
The incident occurred as Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan visited the western city of Soma on Wednesday, a day after the devastating mine fire.
The man, detained by special forces, can be seen lying on the ground as the suited adviser to Erdogan, identified as Yusuf Yerkel by Turkish media and CNN Turk, aims a kick at him.
The shocking image outraged many in Turkey, prompting an outpouring of anger on social media, and is seen as symbolizing the increasingly polarizing impact of Erdogan's authority on the country.
It's been nearly a year since anti-government protests first roiled Istanbul, prompting a response from authorities that was widely criticized as heavy-handed.
Yerkel was quoted by Turkey's semi-official Anadolu news agency on Thursday as saying that he had been deeply saddened by the previous day's events. "I am sad that I could not keep my calm in the face of all the provocation, insults, and attacks that I was subjected to that day," he reportedly said.
Besides the anger prompted by the photo, Erdogan's speech Wednesday to relatives of dead and injured miners was seen as highly insensitive and drew scathing criticism. It was followed by raucous demonstrations and confrontations with police water cannons in Ankara and Istanbul.
A 'sorrow for the whole Turkish nation'
President Abdullah Gul offered words of comfort as he visited Soma on Thursday, a day after his premier attracted public ire.
The mine fire is a "sorrow for the whole Turkish nation," Gul told reporters, and he offered his condolences to the victims' families.
Onlookers listened silently until a man interrupted Gul with shouts: "Please, President! Help us, please!"
An investigation into the disaster has begun, Gul said, adding that he was sure this would "shed light" on what regulations are needed. "Whatever is necessary will be done," he said.
Rescuers saved at least 88 miners in the frantic moments after a power transformer blew up Tuesday during a shift change at the mine, sparking a choking fire deep inside.
Since then, the bodies of nearly 200 miners who were trapped in the burning shaft nearly a mile underground have been returned to their families.
Mass funerals took place Thursday in a community stricken with grief.
Political bonfire
In his much-criticized speech to the relatives of the dead and injured, the Prime Minister glossed over the issue of mine safety, describing the carnage they had suffered as par for the course in their dangerous business.
Apparently on the defensive, he rattled off a string of horrible past accidents, even going back to an example from 19th-century Britain.
As he took a stroll through the city, onlookers showered him with deafening jeers as well as chants of "Resign, Prime Minister!"
Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu defended Erdogan during an interview with CNN's Christiane Amanpour on Thursday.
"He was feeling all these pains in his heart," he said. "Everybody knows that our Prime Minister is always with the people, and always feels the pain of the people. Otherwise, he wouldn't get such a high support in eight elections in (the) last 10 years."
But the disaster opened up an old political wound.
Opposition politician Ozgur Ozel from the Manisa region, which includes Soma, filed a proposal in late April to investigate Turkish mines after repeated deadly accidents.
Erdogan's government stepped on the proposal. It claimed that the mine, owned by SOMA Komur Isletmeleri A.S., had passed recent inspections.
A Turkish engineers' association criticized mine ventilation and safety equipment this week as being "insufficient and old."
A lack of safety inspections has caused 100 coal mines to be closed in the last three years, according to Turkey's energy ministry.
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