At least 18 people have been trapped in a landslide in a gold mine in the Chinese prefecture of Yili, located in the Xinjiang region (west), as confirmed Saturday by the authorities of the Asian giant.
The Xinjiang Department of Emergency Management has detailed that the event took place around 13.40 hours (local time) and added that at the time of the collapse there were about 40 people working in the mine, 22 of whom were able to leave on their own feet.
The authorities have launched a search and rescue operation to try to locate the other 18 miners, according to CCTV television channel. The causes of the collapse in the mine, whose perimeter is being secured to try to prevent further collapses in the area, are not known at the moment.
Accidents of this type are frequent in mines in China, a country with several cases of major occupational safety accidents. Typically, such incidents trigger a nationwide inspection campaign aimed at rooting out violations and punishing officials for shirking their supervisory duties.
Source: (EUROPA PRESS)
