11 dead, 13 injured after landslide at illegal gold mine in western Indonesia
Sign up now: Get insights on Asia's fast-moving developments
Follow topic:
JAKARTA – A landslide at an illegal gold mine in western Indonesia killed 11 people and left 13 injured, after heavy rain in the area.
The landslide hit a remote site in West Sumatra province on Sumatra island on the evening of Sept 26. Search efforts were hindered by the remote location, with rescuers, including police officers, soldiers and civilians, having to walk for hours from the nearest village to reach the area.
Footage seen by Agence France-Presse showed rescuers loading one of the dead into an ambulance near the disaster site in the district of Solok.
“The landslide location is on an old mining pit that had been abandoned by previous miners,” the Solok district disaster agency said in a statement.
Mr Irwan Effendy, the agency’s head, said “the victims include people who conducted manual gold-mining activities”.
It was earlier reported that 15 people were killed in the landslide. The death toll has been revised down to 11, with miscounting linked to the remote location.
“Due to the remote location of the landslide – which requires a four- to six-hour walk – and the lack of communication networks, there was a mismatch (in the) number of victims,” said Mr Irwan.
He said 13 people were also found injured after the landslide at the illegal mine.
He added that no one remained missing, a day after officials reported that 25 people were unaccounted for.
A recovered body is carried to an ambulance after a landslide that killed at least 15 people as search and rescue operations continue at an illegal gold mining site in Solok, West Sumatra, on Sept 28.
PHOTO: AFP
Unlicensed mines are common across the mineral-rich South-east Asian archipelago, where abandoned sites attract locals who hunt for leftover gold ore without proper safety equipment.
Indonesia is prone to landslides during the rainy season, typically between November and April, but some disasters caused by adverse weather have taken place outside that season in recent years.
In July, at least 27 people were killed
In May, at least 15 people died after landslides and flooding in South Sulawesi province swept away dozens of houses and damaged roads.
A landslide in the same province a month before killed 20 people. AFP
