6 Gold Miners Killed In A Landslide In East Kotawaringin Haven't Been Evacuated Yet

Photo by David from Diemar on Unsplash

JAKARTA - Teams from various agencies plan to immediately evacuate six traditional miners who were found dead at a gold mining location in Tumbang Torung Village, Bukit Santuai District, East Kotawaringin Regency, Central Kalimantan.

"The information we have obtained is that six people have died. All of them have been found," said Head of the East Kotawaringin Regional Disaster Management Agency (Kotim) Rihel in Sampit, Friday, October 29.

This incident occurred on Thursday (28/10) yesterday at around 12.00 p.m. WIB. At that time there were 11 people who were mining gold at that location.

Moments before the incident, the location where the victims were looking for gold was being hit by rain. The exact chronology of the incident is not yet known, but it is suspected that the rain caused the soil to become unstable.

The soil, which was increasingly unstable due to the rain, finally collapsed and hit the miners. Of the 11 miners, six people were buried by landslides, while five others survived. The six miners who were hit by the landslide were found during the incident, but the six victims were already dead.

The six victims were Dibau (46) from Sungai Ubar Village, Ahmadi (39) from Sungai Paring Village, Cempaga District, MA Jimi from Sungai Ubar Village, Hendri (35) from Tumbang Boloi Village, Supiansyah (46) and Edut from Dirung Village, Murung District.

Currently, the bodies of the six victims are still at the location. The nearest police department together with the local sub-district government are heading to the scene which is quite far away and access is difficult.

Based on an application, Bukit Santuai District is about 196 kilometers from Sampit, the capital city of East Kotawaringin Regency, with a travel time of about six hours. However, if it is raining like it is today, the trip could be longer because some of the roads become muddy and slippery.

"Currently, the position of the body is still in the village while waiting for the police to launch from Kuala Kuayan to the scene. Several families have also received the news," Rihel said as quoted by Antara.