Kachin, Myanmar (BBN)-Many people are still missing after a landslide at a jade mine in Myanmar’s northern Kachin state, state media said.
At least 104 bodies have now been recovered, with some estimates saying more than 100 people are still missing, reports BBC.
The incident happened in Hpakant on Saturday when a huge amount of mining debris collapsed, engulfing the homes of some miners.
It is unclear what triggered the landslide in the mountainous region.
Kachin produces some of the best jade in the world.
Many of the dead were people who made their living scavenging on or near the waste dumps, searching through the debris in the hope of finding fragments of jade to sell.
Authorities said some areas had been designated at risk of landslides, including where this incident occurred, and notices had been issued to small-scale miners to not reside there, said state-owned The Global New Light of Myanmar.
“We have issued orders and warned the people not to build makeshift huts near mountains of dump soil and not to stay there,” an unnamed official from the Hpakant Township General Administration Department was cited as saying.
BBN/SK/AD