JAKARTA, May 5 (Xinhua) -- Four miners were killed as mine slides struck inside a shaft of an illegal gold mine in South Kalimantan province of central Indonesia, a senior disaster agency said on Sunday.
All the bodies have been retrieved after the collapse in an underground area of the unlicensed mine situated in Gunung Puncak of Kotabaru district at 13:30 p.m. local time Saturday, said Syafarudin Syukur, head of emergency unit at the provincial disaster agency.
“The collapses hit the underground area twice, when the first one happened, it burred one miner, then four others tried to rescue him, but, suddenly, another mine slide struck and buried three out of the four,” he told Xinhua via phone from Kotabaru district.
Search and rescue operation had been undertaken to retrieve the victims, Syafarudin said.
“Today (Sunday) all the four bodies have been pulled out from the underground area,” he said.
Dozens of miners mine gold at the traditional gold mine in Gunung Puncak, the official said.
The Indonesian government has barred operation of illegal gold mine, which is common in small-scale size and situated in remote areas.
With lacking of safety standard, such activities have often triggered mine incidents.
