Rescuers in Indonesia search for eight people trapped in gold mine

Indonesian rescuers raced against the clock Wednesday to save eight people trapped in an illegal gold mine on Java, the country's biggest island, officials said.

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Unlicensed mines — many with complete disregard for even the most basic of safety measures — are common across the mineral-rich Southeast Asian archipelago and accidents are frequent.

The miners were digging inside a 60-metre-deep (200 feet) hole in Pancurendang village in Central Java on Tuesday evening when water suddenly flooded the illegal mine, police said.

With oxygen fast running out and the potential for severe flooding of the mine shaft, the rescue effort was being aided by the military and had turned to getting the water out.

“We received a report this morning that eight people were trapped inside a mine, right now we are still trying to suck the water out, we are focusing on saving the miners’ lives,” the local police chief Edy Suranta Sitepu told reporters Wednesday.

The workers went into the mine at 8 pm (1300 GMT) Tuesday and have been trapped since, he said.

“We don't know their current condition, let’s pray so they can be evacuated safely,” said Sitepu, who added the mine was unlicensed.

Divers would be sent to look for the miners if attempts to draw the water out of the mine failed, Amin Riyanto, a coordinator for the search-and-rescue team, told reporters.

Most of the trapped workers had moved from West Java to mine in the region, police said.

In 2021, six people were killed on Sulawesi island in an illegal gold mine collapse.

At least 16 people were killed two years earlier when another illegal gold mine on the island collapsed and buried the workers.

In 2016, 11 miners died after a mudslide engulfed an illegal gold mine in Sumatra’s Jambi province.

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