At least 15 people have died when an illegal mine collapsed in a remote jungle area in southern Venezuela. At least eleven people were also injured in the accident. The rescue work is difficult.
According to official figures, at least 15 people were killed when a mine collapsed in Venezuela. Another eleven people were injured in the interior of the state of Bolívar, said President Nicolás Maduro.
The media had previously reported 50 to 70 dead and 100 buried. However, according to Maduro, Bolívar’s governor Ángel Marcano is said to have denied these figures.
So far no information about the cause
Maduro did not give a cause for the collapse of the Bulla Loca mine in La Paragua, south of the city of Ciudad Bolívar. The search for the buried victims is ongoing and two helicopters are being used to rescue them, Marcano said late in the evening.
The state government expressed its condolences to the bereaved families and promised them support. The accident occurred on Tuesday and is not the first of its kind in the South American country. Four years ago, at least 35 people were killed when two mines collapsed.
Area difficult to access
The mine is a seven-hour boat ride from the nearest town of La Paragua, where the miners’ relatives waited for news of their relatives. Bolívar’s Secretary for Citizen Security, Edgar Colina Reyes, initially spoke of two dead and two injured. Reyes said the injured were taken to a hospital in the regional capital, Ciudad Bolívar. The dead were therefore transported by boat to La Paragua.
Rescue workers, the military, firefighters and other emergency services were reportedly flown to the scene of the accident. “We are assessing the damage and carrying out a rescue analysis,” Deputy Minister for Civil Protection Carlos Pérez Ampueda told AFP.
The minister shared a video of the accident on the online service X, formerly Twitter. Dozens of people can be seen working in the shallow waters of an open-cast mine as a wall of earth slowly collapses above them. Some escape, others are buried. The Bolívar region is rich in gold, diamonds, iron, bauxite, quartz and coltan. In addition to state-owned mines, there is also a thriving illegal mining industry.