Disaster strikes Prestea

Tragedy struck in the Western Region mining town of Prestea when an illegal mine pit collapsed killing instantly two illegal miners and leaving several others trapped.
The latest mining accident, which occurred early yesterday morning around 6:00 A.M., saw relatives and scores of friends of the deceased and trapped wailing and crying.
Unconfirmed reports suggested that about five of the illegal miners were believed to have been trapped within the belly of the pit at the time of the incident.
The cause of the accident, Today gathers, was the collapse of an old mine pit in which the young men had entered. A source explained that the pit is an old one dug many years ago during legal mining activity and maintained with fortifications, but those enforcements, over the years, had grown weak to the extent that the ground had developed deep cracks.
According to initial reports, when the news of the accident reached town, a handful of able-bodied men went to the scene with shovels to try and rescue the trapped Galamseyers.
The report states that though the first responders tried hard with their shovels to scoop up the earth in the collapsed mine to reach the trapped, they were overawed, a development that forced them to call in the police to help.
As of the time of going to bed yesterday, information reaching Today were uncertain as to whether the trapped miners have been rescued, but some sources said rescuers were working around the clock to reach the trapped illegal miners in a race against time to save their lives.
Illegal mining, known as galamsey, recently became a national issue when the Birim River, after heavy rain, flooded parts of the Eastern Region claiming innocent lives and displacing thousands of residents. However the primary cause of the flooding, according to eye-witnesses, was the practice of galamsey which continues to fester in communities in the Birim’s catchment with each passing day.