At least 19 miners were killed and more than a dozen were still trapped yesterday after a rockslide at a marble mine in northwest Pakistan, officials said.
Boulders of white marble came crashing down on workers on Monday evening in the mountainous Mohmand district in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) province, near the border with Afghanistan.
The quarry is located in the Ziarat area of Mohmand. The area is known for its high quality white marble, both sold in Pakistan and exported to other countries.
“So far 19 bodies and 20 injured have been pulled out after a rockslide at a marble mine,” Mohamed Arif, the provincial minister for mines and minerals development, told AFP.
He said that around 20 more miners were still believed to be trapped under the rubble.
The exact number of fatalities was unclear because some families took bodies of loved ones directly to their homes from the site, said Sameen Shinwari, a doctor at the Ghalanai District Headquarters Hospital, about 50km away.
Cellular signals and other communication facilities are unreliable in large parts of Mohmand district, including the area where the quarry is located.
Between 40 and 50 people were at the site at the time of the collapse, Tariq Habib, district police chief of Mohmand district told Reuters.
“Usually a large number of people work in these marble mines but luckily a majority had finished work and returned home,” he said.
Rescue workers, including soldiers, continued to dig through the rubble to find survivors yesterday.
Labourers often rest at the bottom of the mountains after long working hours.
Pakistan’s mines are notorious for poor safety standards.
Dozens of miners are killed each year in different safety-related incidents.
At least 43 miners were killed in Sorange district of Baluchistan in 2011 as a result of a blast at a coal mine.
At least 10 workers were killed in a rockslide at a marble quarry in the northwestern district of Buner in February.
Thirty workers were killed in explosions at two coal mines in Quetta in 2018.
In 2011, 45 workers were also killed by an explosion at a coal mine outside Quetta.
Federal Minister for Science and Technology Fawad Chaudhry has pointed out that the condition for the labourers was very bad.
The minister urged the provincial government to implement labour laws in the province and hoped that KP government will stand with the families of the deceased labourers.
Army rescuers take part in a search for miners after a rockslide at a marble mine in the mountainous Mohmand district in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.
