The story appears on

Page A8

December 28, 2015

GET this page in PDF

Free for subscribers

View shopping cart

Related News

HomeWorld

Myanmar halts landslide rescue efforts

Rescuers in northern Myanmar called off their search for workers feared buried in a jade mine landslide, police said yesterday, with no missing people or bodies recovered.

A wall of rocks, mud and debris careered down a hillside on Friday afternoon at Hpakant in Kachin state, the war-torn area that is the epicenter of Myanmar鈥檚 secretive multi-billion-dollar jade industry.

Locals reported as many as 50 people might have been buried. But officials played down those numbers, saying only three men had been reported missing.

More than 100 people were killed in the same area in a landslide last month, highlighting the huge risks people take to fuel global demand for jade.

A police officer in Hpakant said rescue efforts were called off because the risk of further landslides was too great.

鈥淭he rescue process was stopped this afternoon because there were possible dangers and cracks appearing on the debris dump site,鈥 the officer, who asked not to be named, said. 鈥淲e haven鈥檛 found anybody and we don鈥檛 know how many casualties there were,鈥 he added.

Another police officer had earlier said three people were thought to be missing.

The state-run Global New Light of Myanmar reported the same figures yesterday. The paper quoted Tin Swe Myint, head of the Hpakant Township Administration Office, as saying that the landslide took place after most workers had finished work and unlike last month鈥檚 tragedy it had not engulfed a row of shanty houses.


 

Copyright 漏 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.

娌叕缃戝畨澶 31010602000204鍙

Email this to your friend