Peru: eight miners dead asphyxiated in an illegal mine

Eight miners died asphyxiated and another was injured in an illegal gold mine located in the northern Andes of Peru, in the region of La Libertad, due to a gas leak, reported today. The local media.

The tragedy occurred last night in one of the illegal mines that exist in Cerro El Toro, near the municipality of Huamachuco, about 700 km north of Lima, according to the EFE agency .

Up to now, seven of the eight victims have been identified, with the names of "Pancho" Rondo, Isaías Vásquez, Orlando Valderrama, Eulises Narro, César Contreras, Jhonatan Tumbajulca and Gilmer Sánchez.

According to early versions, the miners were killed by a landslide or detonation in the gallery of another illegal mine located at the top of the hill, which caused a gas leak in this tunnel located below .

The miners came looking for things and ended up fainting. Only one of them was able to go out to be evacuated to a hospital in the area.

At least two bodies remain in the gallery without being rescued from this hill, emblem of mining for the Sierra de La Libertad.

The parents and companions of the victims were the first to rescue the deceased before the arrival of the authorities at the scene.

This circumstance caused one family to take away the body of his relative in his own home, without waiting for the tax from his turn to arrive to order the lifting of the body.

When the prosecutor arrived on the scene, relatives refused to deliver the bodies of their relatives for the purpose of autopsy, the employer of the mine being committed to compensate them financially.

Accidents and deaths in illegal mines in Peru are frequent because of the limited working conditions of their workers, sometimes with few safety measures, which cause landslides and gas leaks.