JAKARTA, June 4 (Xinhua) -- A total of six gold miners were killed after a landslide struck an illegal gold mining area in North Sulawesi province of Indonesia, a government official disclosed earlier Monday.
Heavy downpours were blamed for the incident taking place in Bakan village of Bolaang Mangondow district, spokesman of national disaster management agency Sutopo Purwo Nugroho said.
"They were still mining, albeit rains had heavily poured down," he told Xinhua in a text message.
Five out of the six corpses have been evacuated but the rest remains being buried inside the mine, Sutopo cited.
The search and rescue for the missing one is underway, he added.
Illegal and traditional mining operations are common across the vast archipelagic country. Indonesia, still lacking safety standards, has frequently seen such incidents which ususally claim dozens of casualties.
