Families of the five persons who died after a galamsey pit collapsed at Namgruma community in the North East Region have retrieved the bodies for burial.
The five were illegal miners allegedly prospecting for gold in an abandoned pit on Monday when the accident occurred.
Reports say they were trying to pump water out of the pit at the time of the incident.
The North East Regional National Disaster Management Organization (NADMO) Director, John Kwaku Alhassan, has been speaking to Citi News.
“The bodies have been retrieved by the families for burial. NADMO together and the police had come to rescue the victims. So we were on it, and then we heard that the families had gone for the bodies for burial”, he said.
There have been past situations of illegal miners losing their lives in pits.
The National Disaster Management Organisation recently indicated that more than twenty people died between 2019 and 2021 after they were either drowned or trapped in mining areas.
NADMO blamed the deaths on the activities of illegal miners who have left most pits uncovered after mining in these areas.