Rescuers in Indonesia are searching for survivors as dozens of people are feared buried by the collapse of an unlicensed gold mine on the island of Sulawesi.
The country’s disaster agency said in a statement that at least one person had been found dead and 13 people rescued by 8am on Wednesday (01:00 GMT) after a collapse the previous evening at the site in the Bolaang Mongondow area of North Sulawesi. Local media reports put the death toll at three.
Rescuers said they could hear the voices of some of those trapped in makeshift mining shafts in a muddy hillside in the Bolaang Mongondow area of North Sulawesi province and believed many were still alive.
“We are able to detect that many of them are still alive because we can hear their voices, as there are some places where air is getting in and out and there are gaps in the mud,” Abdul Muin Paputungan of Indonesia’s disaster agency said.
Search-and-rescue teams and military officers were working together but using simple tools such as spades and ropes because conditions remained dangerous, with the land still prone to shifting and sliding.
“We can’t use heavy machinery because the location is very steep … it could endanger the victims,” Paputungan said.
Evakuasi puluhan orang penambang emas tanpa ijin yang tertimbun longsor terus dilakukan oleh tim SAR gabungan di areal PETI Desa Bakan Kec Lolayan Kab Bolaang Mongondow Sulut. Data sementara: 1 orang tewas, 13 orang luka, dan puluhan orang masih tertimbun. pic.twitter.com/lH3aZFBBty
— Sutopo Purwo Nugroho (@Sutopo_PN) February 26, 2019
Puluhan orang penambang emas tertimbun longsor di arel Penambangan Emas Tanpa Ijin (PETI) di Desa Bakan Kec Lolayan Kab Bolaang Mongondow Sulut pada 26/2/2019 pukul 21.00 WITA. Data sementara per 05.00 WITA 1 orang tewas, 13 orang luka, dan puluhan orang masih tertimbun. pic.twitter.com/TKY5ewPX55
— Sutopo Purwo Nugroho (@Sutopo_PN) February 26, 2019
Sutopo Purwo Nugroho, spokesman for the disaster agency, said dozens of people had been mining for gold when beams and support boards broke suddenly.
“Evacuation efforts continued through the night because of the number of people estimated to be buried,” he said.
Images released by the agency showed rescue workers and local residents on a muddy hillside at night, scrambling to pull out survivors and carry them away on stretchers.
Informal mining operations are commonplace in Indonesia, providing a tenuous livelihood to thousands who labour in conditions with a high risk of serious injury or death.
Miners often burrow straight into hillsides with scant supports and children often are sent into the tunnels to dig and carry out ore hacked from rock faces.
The central government in Jakarta has banned such small-scale gold mining, although regional authorities often turn a blind eye to the practice in more remote areas.
SOURCE:
Al Jazeera and news agencies
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