Nearly 100 bodies have been pulled from a landslide near a jade mine in Myanmar’s northern Kachin State, local officials said on Sunday, and hopes are dwindling that any of an estimated 100 people mis
Nearly 100 bodies have been pulled from a landslide near a jade mine in Myanmar’s northern Kachin State, local officials said on Sunday, and hopes are dwindling that any of an estimated 100 people missing will be found alive.
The landslide happened when a mountain of mining debris gave way in the early hours of Saturday in Hpakant, an area that produces some of the world’s highest-quality jade. The mines and debris dump sites are hazardous and deadly accidents are common.
As of 4 pm on Sunday, 97 bodies had been pulled from the landslide, said Tin Swe Myint, head of the Hpakant township administration department.
That number was expected to rise, but it remains unclear exactly how many people may be buried.“We just don’t know how many people exactly were buried since we don’t have any data on people living there,” he said.
“It was just a slum with these... workers living in makeshift tents. Nobody knows for sure how many and where they had come from.”
Workers, many of them migrants from elsewhere in Myanmar, toil long hours in dangerous conditions for little pay searching for the precious stones.
The landslide occurred at around 3 am when many miners were sleeping, according to Ko Sai, a miner who was sleeping at a nearby camp.
