YANGON, Myanmar – A landslide at a jade mine in northern Myanmar killed 50 people on Thursday, the central government said, although a local lawmaker and rescue workers said many more had died.
The Ministry of Information quoted the local fire service as giving the death toll at the landslide site at Hpakant in Kachin state. The area is located about 600 miles north of Myanmar’s largest city, Yangon, and is the center of the world’s largest and most lucrative jade mining industry.
However, a Hpakant lawmaker, Khin Maung Myint, said that local rescue services told him that 99 bodies had been recovered and that 54 wounded were sent to three hospitals.
Meanwhile, rescuers said at least 113 people have died in a landslide at a jade mining site in northern Myanmar. At least five other people were injured in Thursday’s accident, said Khin Maung Win, president of the Thingaha rescue group working on the site now.
The 7Day News Journal website previously reported that 200 people were not counted.
Other details of the accident were not immediately available.
Accidents at such mining sites that cause multiple casualties are not uncommon.
The victims are typically independent miners who settle near giant mounds of discarded earth that has been mined in bulk by heavy machinery.
Freelance miners looking for chunks of jade generally work and live at the base of the mounds of earth, which become particularly unstable during the rainy season.
