15 dead after landslide at illegal Indonesia mine
A landslide at an illegal gold mine in western Indonesia has killed at least 15 people and left dozens more buried in abandoned pits, authorities said Friday, as rescuers search for missing people.
- Rescuers face challenges in reaching the remote site, delaying evacuation efforts
- Unlicensed mining operations are common in Indonesia, contributing to landslide risks
Unlicensed mines are common in the mineral-rich Southeast Asian archipelago and abandoned sites attract locals who search for remaining gold ore without proper safety equipment.
The landslide occurred on Thursday night after heavy rains in a remote area of Sumatra’s West Sumatra province, provincial disaster management agency spokesman Ilham Wahab told AFP.
“As far as we know, there was a landslide at the gold mine last night, burying several people. The search for victims is still ongoing,” he said. Ilham added that 15 people were killed and three were injured while rescuers were searching for another 25.
Footage obtained by AFP showed rescuers loading one of the dead into an ambulance near the scene of the accident in Solok district.
The Solok district emergency management agency said in a statement to AFP that the landslide occurred in an abandoned “illegal” mine.
“The landslide site is inside an old mining pit abandoned by previous miners,” it said.
Ilham said all activities at the site had been halted as the search for the missing was still ongoing. Harrowing search effort
Ilham said the search effort was complicated by the remote location, with rescuers, including police, soldiers and civilians, having to walk for hours from the nearest village to reach the area in Indonesia.
“The location is quite remote and the terrain is rough. This has hindered evacuation efforts, but people are cooperating to ensure the evacuation process is carried out quickly,” he said.
The Solok District Emergency Management Agency said in a statement that there was no mobile phone signal in the area, making it difficult for rescuers to communicate with each other.
“Among the victims were people who worked in artisanal gold mining,” agency official Irwan Efendi said.
Indonesia is usually prone to landslides during the rainy season, from November to April, but in recent years bad weather has caused disasters outside of this season. In July, a landslide near an illegal gold mine in Indonesia’s Central Sulawesi island killed at least 27 people in Indonesia.
In May, landslides and floods washed away dozens of homes, damaged roads and killed at least 15 people in South Sulawesi province.
A landslide in the same province a month earlier killed 20 people.
