Four Cambodian prospectors who were digging for gold in central Kampong Thom province were killed when earth collapsed in the pit where they were mining, a government official and a fellow villager said Friday.
Information Minister Khieu Kanharith on his Facebook page cited reports from a local official that the four dead men had been hired by a couple who own the mine in the rural jungle village of Snong An.
The incident occurred on Thursday morning while the men were digging, said Ven Srey Tith, a villager who lives near the site.
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Speaking by telephone from his home, he said the pit was only a little over two meters deep, but mounds of dug earth collapsed into it without warning and no one was nearby to see the plight of the men.
Four men were killed after a six-foot deep pit dug in an attempt to illegally mine for gold collapsed on them. (Fox News)
Their bodies were recovered the same day and sent to their families for religious rites.
Unlicensed mining is illegal and Ven Srey Tith said authorities had told villagers a long time ago they were not allowed to mine gold there.
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Some villagers have begged to be allowed to dig for gold because they are poor and need the income, he said. Most of the villagers farm for a living, she said.
Despite the official ban, mining has been going on in the village since 2012 and there have been no serious accidents so far, he said. Other miners stopped digging on Friday, at least temporarily, after hearing of the tragedy, he said.
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Illegal small-scale gold mining is often tolerated, while licensed industrial gold mining is done by a handful of companies, including Australia, China, Vietnam and India.
