An unknown number of illegal miners are feared dead after a mining pit collapsed on them at Akyem Twepiase near Kyebi in the Eastern Region.
A joint rescue team of Police and residents have been able to retrieve the body of one victim and deposited it at the Kyebi Government Hospital.
The residents believe at least three persons were working in the pit before it caved in.
Narrating the incident to the media, a resident of Twepiase said the victims were young men brought in from the northern Ghana to work for the owners of the mining site.
“The victims are not Akyems they are northerners hired to work in the pit”
“They were doing down blow which is underground mining. This particular one is about twice of two high tension poles deep. So because it rained the whole day yesterday, it caved on them. It is not clear the number of people trapped. So far one person has been retrieved.”
He added, that the owners of the illegal mining site who are indigenes of the community, however, fled the town after they got wind of the incident.
“All the owners of the site have run away,” he added.
This disaster comes two weeks after five persons died in a similar accident at Nangruma in the Mamprugu/Moaduri District of the North East Region while prospecting for gold in an abandoned pit which belonged to some Chinese.
The North East Regional Director of the National Disaster Management Organisation (NADMO), John Kwaku Alhassan who confirmed the incident to Graphic Online said the body was retrieved from the pit by a rescue team.
Meanwhile, the Akyem Twepiase area is one of the hardest-hit communities in the Eastern Region as the country continues to battle with the destruction of its forests and water bodies from illegal mining.