A total of 103 people have been confirmed dead after an enormous landslide buried the homes of jade miners in Hpakant, Kachin State on Saturday night.
Many more people are unaccounted for, as rescuers continue to rake through the soil with mechanical excavators, state media reported this morning.
The disaster happened after a mountain of dump soil, deposited last year by a mining company, collapsed onto about 70 makeshift huts at around 3am on Saturday.
Just five remained standing.
Landslides are common in the area, as people scrabble through perilous piles of waste left behind by the multi-billion dollar jade industry, hoping to find a gem that could be worth thousands.
Officials told the Global New Light of Myanmar that they had put up notices warning that the area was dangerous.
“The victims involved in the accident also signed onto the authorities’ written notices, pledging they would not stay there,” an unnamed official said.
Photo / AFP
