Rescuers have recovered the bodies of at least five people, search continues for the bodies of seven more. Quarry wall collapses and buries workers. Breach of security measures suspected. In recent years illegal mining activities have intensified.

Jakarta (AsiaNews / Agencies) - At least 12 illegal miners have died following the collapse of a gold mine, overnight between October27 and 28, in the district of Bogor, in the Indonesian province of West Java.

Rescuers involved in the search operations have so far found the dead bodies of five people. Operations continue to find the other seven people buried in the collapse of the wall.

Police have launched an investigation into the matter to verify any responsibility in the collapse and death of the workers. According to intelligence sources, there was no compliance with safety measures.

Udjwala Prana Sigit, head of the provincial police, reports that even people still alive at the time of the collapse are now "to be considered dead because the debris of the collapse will have blocked the oxygen supply" within the quarry. "Inside it - he added – people were working without even the minimum of safety criteria".

The local law enforcement spokesman Eng Puspitalena also clarifies that the dead miners were not experienced, but "illegal workers" with little or no experience in mining, digging up to 200 meters underground. It is "very likely," he warns that "there are no survivors."

The area covered by the extraction activity had already been closed for the first time by the local authorities last month, however, a group of miners (mostly unlicensed) wanted to reopen the quarry illegally.

Some witnesses report that the incident occurred when the face of the mine where they were working collapsed. The earth gave way burying the workers and blocking any escape route, trapping people locked inside.

The illegal gold mining has intensified in recent years in Indonesia, thanks to the increase in value of the precious metal; in the early 1990s there was a veritable gold rush in the country. At the same time accidents and victims in these illegal activities have grown exponentially.
Earlier this month there was another very similar incident at another illegal gold mine in the province of West Kalimantan, where at least 18 people are believed to have died although an official death toll has never established.

• indonesia
• illegal
• gold
• mining
• deaths