Dozens of jade miners still missing following landslide in Myanmar

People looking at the site of the deadly landslide at the unregulated jade mine near northern Kachin's Hpakant township. - AFP

YANGON (dpa): Rescue workers were searching for dozens of missing miners following a major landslide at a jade mine in northern Myanmar.

By Monday (Aug 14) evening there were 34 reported missing in the Hpakant township of northern Myanmar, local rescue workers told dpa.

Rescue workers also said they had spotted two bodies from a distance, but could not recover them because of the swampy ground.

The incident took place near a village called Mana on Sunday afternoon while the miners were searching for jade. It was not known why the soil gave way. It was not raining at the time of the disaster, the workers said.

"It took place where they were searching for jade on huge mounds of waste soil. Then the waste fell down into the lake and the miners jumped down with the waste,” a local rescuer told dpa, requesting anonymity.

He said while 34 are confirmed missing, but "people here said that there would be around 50 people missing."

On Sunday the rescue team found eight wounded people and took them to the local hospital.

Hpakant is a township in Kachin state, which is famous for its very lucrative jade industry, but every year many jade miners go missing and lose their lives because of huge landslides while they search for the valuable mineral.

Myanmar has been in political turmoil since a coup on Feb 1, 2021. The military have been cracking down to contain protests, civil disobedience movements and armed resistance by anti-junta militias across the country seeking to unseat the military government by force.

According to the human rights group Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, which documents killings and human rights violations, at least 3,919 people have been killed and more than 24,246 people arrested since the coup.