Five die in Vietnam gold mine accident–official

HANOI–Four miners and a rescue worker died after apparently inhaling toxic fumes at an illegal gold mine in northern Vietnam, a local official said Friday, in the latest accident at an illicit quarry.

The deaths occurred on Tuesday when some 10 miners were working at the site in Nguyen Binh district, a remote area of Cao Bang province near China, said Thang Trong Dung, head of the provincial authorities.

“An unknown poisonous gas was probably the cause of the deaths,” he told AFP.

The bodies had yet to be recovered “because the access was too difficult to a mountain mining cave up to 320 metres (1,050 feet) deep,” he added.

Local authorities reported the deaths of six people after an illegal gold mine collapsed in June in central Quang Nam province, while a similar incident in May killed five people in Nghe An province in north-central Vietnam.

Deadly accidents are not uncommon at illegal or private mines in the communist country, where labour and safety regulations are often disregarded.