BANDUNG: The death toll from a rockfall at a limestone quarry on Indonesia’s Java island rose to 18 on Sunday, with another seven people still missing and feared dead, a military official said.
Workers and heavy equipment were buried when rocks suddenly fell at the mining site in the city of Cirebon in West Java province on Friday morning.
The rockfall also injured at least 12 people.
“Today, we retrieved one more body, which brings the total death toll to 18 people, while seven more people are still missing,“ local military chief Mukhammad Yusron told AFP.
“We suspect the missing victims have already died.”
Rescuers have deployed excavators and rescue dogs to search for the remaining victims, Mukhammad said.
He said the search operation was challenging and dangerous due to the unstable structures of the rock.
“We must pay attention to the rescuers’ safety because there have been more rockfalls during the operation.”
The local company overseeing the mine was operating legally. Still, safety standards were lacking, according to West Java governor Dedi Mulyadi, who said he had ordered its closure following the accident.
“I have issued an order to my subordinates at the site. The company has been shut down permanently,“ he said in a statement earlier this week.
Friday’s incident was the second collapse at the quarry, following an incident in February but no casualties were reported then.
Mining accidents are common across the mineral-rich Southeast Asian archipelago, especially in unlicensed sites where safety protocols are often ignored.
In July last year, at least 23 people died and 35 others were missing when a landslide hit a remote village near an illegal gold mine on the central island of Sulawesi.
In 2023 eight workers died after being trapped in an illegal gold mine in Central Java.
