Five crushed to death in Bolivia gold mine collapse

SUCRE: Five miners were crushed to death as a result of a collapse inside a gold mine in the Bolivian department of Potosi, police said Saturday.

The victims of the disaster at the Amayapampa mine on Friday were found buried under a landslide.

“Five adults were found inside the mine. The cause of death was suffocation due to crushing,” Potosi Police Commander Fernando Benitez told journalists.

“We assume that part of the hill collapsed and crushed them.”

The Amayapampa site is the largest gold mine in Potosi and is operated as an open-pit mine by the state-owned Bolivian Mining Corporation (Comibol).

It is located at an altitude of more than 4,000 meters (13,100 feet) in Potosi, about 578 kilometers (360 miles) south of La Paz.

According to the police, the deceased were not regular Comibol employees, but had official permits to carry out the traditional “paqoma,” or the collecting of residual ore.

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This accident brings the number of deaths in mining incidents in Potosi so far this year to 73, said Benitez.

In March, five miners died as a result of a collapse in a mine in the city of La Paz.

Whereas the death risk in the gold mine is possible anywhere in the world, collapse resulting in such deaths is equally possible in the coal mines too.

Last year, at least 20 miners had been killed and several injured in a rocket attack on local coal mines in Duki, district of Balochistan province, Pakistan.

The unidentified attackers reportedly used rocket launchers and hand grenades in the assault, setting fire to machinery within the mines.

The bodies and the injured miners were rushed to nearby Teaching Hospital Loralai for medical care. 

 Police sources said that the death toll may rise further as several injured were in critical condition. They said that eight injured have been shifted to hospital so far.

Police confirmed that the victims hailed from various regions, including Pishin, Qilla Saifullah, Zhob, Muslim Bagh, Musa Khel, Quetta, and Afghanistan.