JAKARTA: A landslide at an illegal gold mine in western Indonesia has killed at least 15 people and buried dozens of others in the abandoned pit with rescue workers struggling to locate the missing, officials said on Friday (Sep 27).
Unlicensed mines are common across the mineral-rich Southeast Asian archipelago, where abandoned sites attract locals who hunt for leftover gold ore without proper safety equipment.
The landslide hit a remote site in West Sumatra province on Sumatra island on Thursday evening after heavy rains in the area, provincial disaster mitigation agency spokesperson Ilham Wahab told AFP.
“The information we can provide was that a landslide occurred at a gold mine last night, causing several people to be buried. Efforts to search for the victims are ongoing,” he said.
Ilhan added that 15 people were killed and three injured, with rescuers searching for 25 others.
Footage seen by AFP showed rescuers loading one of the dead into an ambulance near the disaster site in the district of Solok.
The Solok district disaster agency said in a statement sent to AFP that the landslide took place at an abandoned “illegal” mine.
“The landslide location is on an old mining pit that had been abandoned by previous miners,” it said.
Ilham said all activities at the site had been halted as search efforts for the missing were ongoing.
