JAKARTA: Rescue teams in Indonesia’s Central Sulawesi province searched for survivors on Thursday after a landslide in an illegal gold mining area killed six people, the search and rescue agency said.
Teams comprised of police, military and the local disaster agency deployed heavy machinery to help the search in the village of Buranga after the landslide on Wednesday evening. At least 15 survivors had been found as of Thursday.
Fatmawati, a spokeswoman from the search and rescue agency in the provincial capital Palu, who goes by one name, said at least one person was missing.
“Among those found dead were a husband and his wife,” he said.
The mine shaft collapsed about 30 minutes after heavy rain began pouring in, burying workers under 20-metre thick mud, said RadityaJati, spokesman for the National Disaster Management Agency.
“More people came because they heard news that there was substantial gold and they jostled to get into the narrow pit,” Raditya said.
About 100 people were working in the mine at that time, but most managed to escape, he said.
. — dpa/AFP
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