Senior official from Sudan's Darfur region says only five people died in collapse of an unlicensed gold mine last week, disputing other estimates that dozens of workers perished
Al-Fatih Abdel-Aziz, the acting governor of North Darfur state, said a government team that visited the site in Jebel Amir district found that only one mine had collapsed, causing five deaths. In comments reported late Monday by the official SUNA news agency, Aziz said three of the bodies were recovered.
The Jebel Amir district chief, Haroun al-Hassan, last Thursday told AFP "the number of people who died is more than 60". He added later that it was unclear how many victims there might be.
A colleague of the missing men said the stench of death had seeped out of the baked earth and other miners believed more than 100 were trapped inside. He said nine rescuers also disappeared when the land collapsed around them.
Eight bodies were pulled out before the rescue was called off because it was too dangerous to continue, the miner said on Saturday.
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