No less than 30 folks had been killed when a gold mine collapsed in northeastern Afghanistan on Sunday, within the newest tragedy to strike the war-torn nation.
In keeping with official studies, nother seven had been injured within the incident in Kohistan district of Badakhshan province, district governor Mohammad Rustam Raghi advised AFP.
Villagers had dug a 60-metre (200-feet) deep shaft in a river mattress to seek for gold. They had been inside when the partitions fell in.
“The people were using an excavator to dig a big hole in the river when it collapsed, trapping dozens of workers,” Raghi mentioned.
“At least 30 people have been killed and seven wounded.”
It was not clear why the shaft collapsed, however the provincial governor’s spokesman Nik Mohammad Nazari advised AFP the miners weren’t professionals.
“The villagers have been involved in this business for decades with no government control over them,” Nazari mentioned.
“We have sent a rescue team to the area, but villagers have already started removing bodies from the site.”
Badakhshan is a distant, mountainous province in northeast Afghanistan bordering Tajikistan, China and Pakistan.
The impoverished area is susceptible to landslides, notably within the colder months when heavy snow blankets the province.
Unlawful mining is widespread in resource-rich Afghanistan, with the Taliban counting on the sector for a lot of its income.
However many of the nation’s minerals stay untapped because the raging battle and lack of regulation deter worldwide miners from exploiting the large reserves.