Nearly 100 bodies have been pulled from a landslide near a jade mine in Myanmar's northern Kachin State and hopes are dwindling that any of an estimated 100 people still missing will be found alive.
The landslide happened when a mountain of mining debris gave way in the early hours of yesterday in Hpakant, an area that produces some of the world's highest-quality jade.
The mines and debris dump sites are hazardous and deadly accidents are common.
By this morning, 97 bodies had been pulled from the landslide, said Tin Swe Myint, head of the Hpakant Township Administration Department in the country previously known as Burma.
That number was expected to rise, but it remains unclear exactly how many people may be buried.
"We just don't know how many people exactly were buried since we don't have any data on people living there," Mr Myint said.
"It was just a slum with these...workers living in makeshift tents. Nobody knows for sure how many, and where they had come from."
Workers, many of them migrants from elsewhere in Myanmar, toil long hours in dangerous conditions for little pay searching for the precious stones.
The landslide occurred at around 3am when many miners were sleeping, according to a miner who was sleeping at a nearby camp.
"We just heard a loud noise sounding like thunder and saw that the huge mountain collapsed and a huge wave of rubble was moving and sprawling on a wide area," he said.
Mr Myint said that rescue efforts were continuing and that heavy machinery was being used, but he was not hopeful survivors would be found.
"I think chances of finding anyone alive are very thin," he said.
Several companies had dumped mining debris at the 200-acre dump site, he said. The dump was near a mine controlled by Triple One Jade Mining Company, he added.
Much of the jade that is mined in Hpakant is believed to be smuggled to neighbouring China, where the stone is highly valued.
