Twelve people have died in a closed closed gold mine in El Callao in southeastern Venezuela, a mining and gold mining region, an official of the relief teams told AFP Saturday.
“To date, we have 12 dead,” General Edgar Colina Reyes, Secretary General of Citizen Security in Bolivar State, told AFP, explaining that they “entered a mine that has been closed for a long time.”
The accident occurred on Wednesday.
Colina Reyes said that “the mine was flooded by rain,” depriving the miners of oxygen. He added that they “died of respiratory failure.”
The same source added that seven bodies were recovered on Saturday and five others on Friday, indicating that they were taken to the morgue to determine their identities.
The collapse of a hall in a mine in the same area in 2021 killed one person, while 34 others were executed.
Gold prospecting and illegal mining are common in southern Venezuela.
The workers of these mines often work in difficult conditions and accidents occur while criminal gangs control a large part of this sector.
Venezuela/ AFP