Manado, N Sulawesi (ANTARA News) - The death toll from a landslide in a smallholder mining site in Bakan Village, Bolaang Mongondow District, North Sulawesi Province, rose to 13 as of Tuesday morning.

"This morning, three bodies were evacuated from the landslide site," Abdul Muin Paputungan, head of the emergency response section of the Bolaang Mongondow disaster mitigation office, stated here, Tuesday.

A joint Search and Rescue (SAR) team, working incessantly over the last five days, has evacuated 33 people from the mining site, with 20 of them surviving the accident.

Deputy for Operation, Search, and Help of the National Search and Rescue Agency (Basarnas) Nugroho Budi Wiryanto earlier remarked that the SAR team will continue to evacuate those still trapped in the mining site.

"We will continue to evacuate them using heavy duty equipment," he noted.

Wiryanto said he was unaware of the exact number of people still trapped in the mining site.

Tens of gold miners were buried as a mining site collapsed at Bakan Village on February 27, 2019.

"Tens of gold miners are buried by a landslide in an illegal gold mining site on February 27, 2019, at 9 p.m. local time," Sutopo Purwo Nugroho, spokesman of the National Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB), noted on his Twitter account, last Wednesday.

By 5 a.m. local time on Wednesday, an individual was found dead, 13 people were injured, and tens of others were still buried.

Reporting by Karel Polakitan, fardah

Reporter: Antara
Editor: Fardah Assegaf
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