At least 30 people have been killed in an apparent mine collapse in northern Afghanistan, officials said Sunday, VOA news reports.
Villagers in Kohistan district of Badakhshan province had dug into a river bed mining for gold when the walls around them collapsed, according to local officials.
At least seven others have been injured, and the death toll could rise.
The provincial governor’s spokesman Nik Mohammad Nazari told the French Press Agency (AFP) that these villagers have been working in makeshift mines for decades, with no government control over them.
Afghanistan’s northern Badakhshan province is mountainous and prone to landslides.