gold mine collapse causes death of 12 workers in Venezuela

(MENAFN) domestic representatives informed AFP on Saturday, that more than 12 illegal miners died in a closed gold mine in the Venezuelan city of El Callao. As heavy rain filled the mine with water and caused the prospectors to get stuck inside, where they were tragically suffocated.

The group “entered a mine that had been closed a long time,” domestic security secretary, General Edgar Colina Reyes, informed AFP. Reyes stated that “the mine was flooded from rains” on Wednesday, which caused the mine to collapse and made escaping the mine impossible. Five bodies were found on Friday and an additional seven on Saturday, he also said.

Reyes informed a news agency that 112 people made it out of the collapsing mine, and that authorities went back to the spot on Sunday to check for any more victims or survivors. The 12 bodies have already been given back to their families, he said.

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