Colombian authorities are investigating the fate of 15 miners trapped by a collapse in a gold mine in the municipality of Neira, Caldas department (center), official sources reported yesterday.
The Director of the National Mining Agency (ANM), Juan Miguel Durán, assured that the emergency care protocol was triggered as a result of the accident, which took place in an underground mine “where an estimated 15 miners are missing”.
“A National Mining Agency mining rescue team traveled to the area,” the official added on Twitter.
The Caldas Ministry of Environment explained that the landslide took place in the village (village) of El Bosque.
“According to preliminary information from authorities, miners in the area may become trapped. Fire fighters travel to the scene of the emergency,” the agency said on its social networks.
The emergency, authorities of the region reported to Efe, is attended by firefighters from the city of Irra, in the adjacent department of Risaralda, which is closer to the accident area than the municipal seat of Neira.
Likewise, relief agencies, the military, police, and officials from the Mayor’s Office of Neira, a coffee community in Colombia’s central mountain range, travel to the area.
The rescuers will bring motor pumps to the area to fetch water from the mine which was apparently under water as it is very close to the Cauca River, the second largest in Colombia.
On February 20, three people died and two more were injured in another accident that occurred in a mine in the municipality of Buriticá, in the department of Antioquia (northwest).