A landslide at a Jade mine in northern Myanmar on Thursday killed at least 160 persons with over 50 injured.
The incident happened after a heap of mining waste collapsed into a lake, triggering a wave of mud and water that buried many workers.
Myanmar Fire Services Department said that the tragic incident happened at jade-rich Hpakant area of Kachin after heavy rain.
“By 7:15 pm, 162 bodies were found, and 54 injured people were sent” to nearby hospitals, Myanmar’s fire service department said on its official Facebook page.
“The jade miners were smothered by a wave of mud,” the statement said.
“The jade miners were smothered by a wave of mud,” the statement said.
Photos posted on the Facebook page showed rows of dead bodies laid out on a hill, covered by tarpaulin.
https://twitter.com/Reuters/status/1278659688620371968?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1278659688620371968%7Ctwgr%5E&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.aljazeera.com%2Fnews%2F2020%2F07%2Fmyanmar-50-die-jade-landslide-200702055918585.html
Maung Khaing, a 38-year-old miner from the area, said he saw a towering pile of waste that looked on the verge of collapse and was about to take a picture when people began shouting “run, run!”
“Within a minute, all the people at the bottom [of the hill] just disappeared,” he told Reuters news agency by phone.
“I feel empty in my heart. I still have goosebumps … There were people stuck in the mud shouting for help, but no one could help them.”
Than Hlaing, a member of a local civil society group helping in the aftermath of the disaster, said those killed were informal workers scavenging the waste left by a larger mining company.
“There’s no hope for the families to get compensation as they were freelance miners,” she said. “I don’t see any route to escape this kind of cycle. People take risks, go into landfills, as they have no choice.”
Comments are closed.