At least 14 people were killed and several injured after the collapse of an illegally operated open-pit gold mine in central Venezuela, said officials on Wednesday adding an undetermined number of people could be trapped.

14 bodies had been recovered so far and authorities knew of at least 11 people injured, said Bolivar state Gov. Angel Marcano told local reporters.

“We continue to carry out rescue work,” he said, with relatives demanding swift rescue efforts. 

The accident took place in the Angostura municipality on Tuesday, when a wall collapsed at a mine known as Bulla Loca, which can only be reached by an hours-long boat ride.

Officials feared the death toll could rise into the dozens. Angostura Mayor Yorgi Arciniega said late Tuesday that he planned to take “some 30 caskets” to a community near the mine.

Relatives of the miners gathered in La Paragua, the closest community to the mine, to ask the government to send aircraft to the remote location to rescue the injured and recover bodies.

“We are here waiting, please, for the government to support us with helicopters, planes, anything,” said Karina Ríos, whose daughter’s father was trapped in the collapse.

“There are quite a few dead, there are people wounded. Why don’t they give us support, where are they?” Ríos said she is worried that bodies could quickly decompose because of the area’s conditions.

Venezuela’s government in 2016 established a huge mining development zone stretching across the middle of the country, to add new revenues alongside its oil industry. Since then, mining operations for gold, diamonds, copper and other minerals have proliferated within and outside that zone.

Many mines operate outside or on the margins of the law. They offer lucrative jobs for ordinary Venezuelans, but the conditions are brutal.

Miner Carlos Marcano, 71, who survived the collapse said, “One would not want a colleague, a human being, to die like that. Some of us made it. There are a few wounded, but there are still a number of dead who have not been rescued and are buried there.” 

(AP with PTI inputs)

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