The victims were buried when a vast heap of waste material, discarded by the mining companies, collapsed in Kachin state, Burmese media reported.
Many of the dead were scavengers living on or near the waste dumps, who search through the debris in the hope of finding fragments of jade to sell.
The state of Kachin produces some of the best jade in the world.
The landslide in Hpakant happened in the early hours of Sunday morning, and there are reports of dozens more missing.
A huge rescue operation is underway with the Myanmar Red Cross, the army, police and local community groups all at the scene trying to dig people out of the earth..............http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-34892888
22/11/15
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Related:
Nearly 100 bodies recovered from Myanmar landslide...
ReplyDeleteNearly 100 bodies have been pulled from a landslide near a jade mine in Myanmar's northern Kachin State and an estimated 100 people are still missing, a rescue official said on Sunday.
The landslide happened in Hpakant, an area that produces some of the world's highest quality jade, but the mines and dump sites for debris are rife with hazards.
Workers, many of them migrants from other parts of the country also known as Burma, toil long hours for little pay...........http://www.rte.ie/news/2015/1122/748375-landslide-myanmar/
22/11/15
The death toll rose to 113 after nine more bodies were recovered on Monday, three days after a giant amount of dump soil from a jade mine collapsed in Myanmar's northernmost Kachin State....
ReplyDeleteMost victims of the deadly landslide were ethnic people, a local police officer told Xinhua.
The landslide, which occurred before dawn on Friday, buried about 80 households in Sankhatku village in Hpakant town when local miners were sleeping near the dump soil.
About 100 local miners were said to be staying at the base of the dump soil.
Many more people were still unaccounted for as a search and rescue operation was continuing at the site with 14 bulldozers.
The Hpakant administration has declared some mines in the town including the one where the tragedy happened as risk areas.
Migrant miners from five small companies were searching for jade in piles of waste soil around the mountainside.
Residents said at least five similar incidents took place in the same area this year.
http://www.china.org.cn/world/2015-11/23/content_37134475.htm
23/11/15
A landslide of mining waste killed at least six people in the sixth deadly such accident in northern Myanmar's jade mining region since a November disaster left more than 100 dead...
ReplyDeleteHpakant Baptist Church deacon Dut La, who is organizing funerals for the victims, said six bodies were in the morgue but more than a dozen may still lie under the waste from the slide that occurred Monday afternoon in Kachin state's Hpakant mining region.
"We are going to bury them today. Some family members showed up but some didn't and we cannot wait for them anymore," Dut La said Wednesday. "There are a dozen more possibly buried under the debris but it's quite difficult to take the bodies out because it's too dangerous."...AP...http://www.voanews.com/content/at-least-six-dead-in-landslide-at-myanmar-jade-mine/3164497.html
27/1/16