Explosion at stand-off between rival gold miners in Bolivia kills at least 5
Rival miners have repeatedly come to blows in Sorata, situated in an area experiencing a gold rush
A powerful explosion has killed at least five people, including a pregnant woman and one-year-old baby, during a stand-off between rival groups of gold miners in northwestern Bolivia, police said, a rare instance of territorial disputes between the nation’s mining co-operatives turning fatal.
The blast thundered through the Yani mining camp on Thursday as two rival mining groups disputed access to the gold mine near the mountain town of Sorata, some 150km (about 90 miles) northwest of the country’s administrative capital of La Paz, said Colonel Gunther Agudo, a local police officer. Several gold deposits straddle the remote area.
Agudo had initially reported six people killed but revised the toll to five after firefighters finished recovering the bodies from under the rubble. The dead included three men, a pregnant woman and an infant, he said.
Bolivia’s deputy interior minister, Jhonny Aguilera, said the suspected perpetrator of the attack was killed by the explosion, which was detonated by remote control.
The predawn explosion at the mine struck a three-storey house and set cars and tractors alight. The fires wrecked several other structures and cut electricity.