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Myanmar Kachin jade mine landslide 'kills 50' Myanmar landslide: 90 dead at Kachin jade mine
(about 2 hours later)
A landslide at a jade mine in northern Myanmar has killed at least 50 people, a witness has told the BBC. A landslide at a jade mine has killed at least 90 people in northern Myanmar, witnesses say.
The state of Kachin produces some of the best jade in the world, but landslides are not uncommon. The victims were buried when a vast heap of waste material, discarded by the mining companies, collapsed in Kachin state, Burmese media reported.
Most of the dead are thought to be people who tried to make a living by climbing on waste material dumped from nearby mines, searching with their hands for fragments of discarded jade. Many of the dead were scavengers living on or near the waste dumps, who search through the debris in the hope of finding fragments of jade to sell.
It's unclear what caused the collapse of the heap of waste material. The state of Kachin produces some of the best jade in the world.
One local man told the BBC that he saw more than 50 bodies dug out of the debris on Saturday evening. The landslide in Hpakant happened in the early hours of Sunday morning, and there are reports of dozens more missing.
Some reports said there were more than 100 people missing. A huge rescue operation is underway with the Myanmar Red Cross, the army, police and local community groups all at the scene trying to dig people out of the earth.
Dozens of huts at the site were also buried by the landslide. The state-run Global New Light of Myanmar newspaper said that many of the dead were asleep in huts when the landslide happened.
"We are seeing only dead bodies and no one knows how many people live there," local official Nilar Myint told the AFP news agency. He said that only one person had been pulled alive from the rubble, but had died soon afterwards.
However their efforts have been hampered by bad weather.
It is unclear what caused the collapse of the heap of waste material.
Communications with this part of Kachin State are poor and details are hard to confirm.Communications with this part of Kachin State are poor and details are hard to confirm.
In a report in October, advocacy group Global Witness said that the value of jade produced in 2014 alone was $31bn (£20.4bn) - the equivalent of nearly half the country's GDP - yet hardly any of the money is reaching ordinary people or state coffers.
Local people in mining areas accuse the mining industry of a series of abuses, including poor on-site health and safety and frequent land confiscations.
Many jade mining areas have been turned into a moon-like areas of environmental destruction as huge diggers churn the earth in search of the translucent green stones.