YANGON, July 3 (Xinhua) -- Six more bodies were recovered, bringing the death toll of a jade mine collapse in Myanmar's Kachin state to 172 so far on Friday, according to latest figures released by the Fire Services Department.
"We have been carefully carrying out search and rescue operations as there may be more landslides occurring at any time and the operations were stopped for today," U Kyaw Min, an official from Wai Khar village administration office, told Xinhua.
The incident left 54 injured and they were brought to the township hospitals for treatment, the department's earlier release said.
Caused by the monsoon rains, the landslide occurred at a jade mining site in Wai Khar village, Sate Mu village tract of Hpakant township at 08:00 a.m. local time on Thursday.
According to a recent release from the Military True News Information Team, a 304.8-meter high cliff wall collapsed onto a tailing pond at a suspended mining site.
Deadly landslides are frequent in Kachin state, known as land of jade, especially in Hpakant mining region.
Many local people make their living by jade scavenging in the region and most of the landslides are caused by the partial collapse of tailings heaps and dams.
Death toll of Thursday's mining tragedy surpassed that of the major fatal landslide which took place in the region in November 2015, leaving at least 116 jade scavengers dead. Enditem
