At least 15 people have died and dozens of others have been buried in the abandoned pit of an illegal gold mine in western Indonesia, according to officials on Friday ( Sep 27 ), and rescue workers are trying to locate the missing.
Unregulated mine are prevalent throughout the mineral-rich South Asian peninsula, where abandoned websites draw locals who search for left metal ore without proper safety equipment.
After heavy storms in the area, a remote site in West Sumatra territory on Sumatra area was hit by a landslide on Thursday evening, according to statewide disaster mitigation company spokesperson Ilham Wahab.
” We can tell you that a gold mine crashed last night, leaving many people dead,” we said. Work to search for the victims are ongoing”, he said.
Ilhan added that 15 people were killed and three hurt, with volunteers searching for 25 people.
One of the deceased was loaded into an emergency by rescuers near the catastrophe site in the Solok district, according to footage seen by AFP.
The Solok city disaster agency claimed in a statement that the accident occurred at an abandoned “illegal” me.
The location of the flood is “on an old mining pit that past miners had abandoned,” the statement read.
Ilham claimed that all actions at the site had been stopped because the missing’s research efforts were still being pursued.