NNA – More than 70 people were killed after a tunnel collapsed at a Malian gold mining site last week, a local gold mining group leader and a local official told AFP on Wednesday.
quot;It started with a noise. The earth started to shake. There were over 200 gold miners in the field. The search is over now. We#39;ve found 73 bodies,quot; Oumar Sidibe, an official for gold miners in the southwestern town of Kangaba, told AFP, of the incident on Friday.
The same toll was confirmed by a local councillor.
Mali#39;s ministry of mines in a statement on Tuesday had announced the death of several miners but did not give precise figures.
The government offered its quot;deepest condolences to the grieving families and to the Malian peoplequot;.
It also called on quot;communities living near mining sites and gold miners to scrupulously respect safety requirements and to work only within the perimeters dedicated to gold panningquot;. mdash; AFPnbsp;
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