1st LD Writethru: About 50 migrant workers missing in renewed landslide in Myanmar
Xinhua, December 26, 2015 Adjust font size:
About 50 migrant workers went missing, feared dead in a renewed landslide in Myanmar's northernmost Kachin State on Friday evening, local police told Xinhua Saturday.
The landslide occurred at another dump soil site near the same Hpa-kant jade mining area at 5:30 p.m. (local time) while miners were working there.
Search and rescue operation is under way.
Some 121 people died in the landslide which occurred more than one month ago at the same area.
Following last month's deadly landslide in Hpa-kant, the authorities have moved 108 migrant workers from risk areas where they lived to safer places.
This year has witnessed seven similar incidents in the same area.
When miners began using heavy machinery to extract jade from mines in Myanmar in 2005, migrant workers across the country flew to the area to search for small jade stones from discarded soil.
There are around 200,000 squatters in Hpa-kant Township.
According to official figures, as of Nov. 30, 627 mining companies have been allowed to mine on 7,714 plots, while another 231 companies are mining through a win-win business system on 311 plots. Endit