30 gold miners killed in tunnel collapse in Afghanistan

30 Afghans were killed on Sunday when the tunnel they were digging in to mine gold in Afghanistan collapsed, officials said. Officials said the victims were villagers who were mining for gold illegally, rather than in a government project. “Poor villagers during winters try to compensate their earnings by pursuing illegal mining,” Nek Mohammad Nazari, a spokesman for the provincial governor, said.

He said the tunnel had caved in. A police spokesman for Badakhshan province earlier said the cause of the accident, which occurred in heavy snowfall, was a landslide. Police said seven people were injured alongside the at least 30 killed .