At least 14 people have died after a gold mine collapsed in the southern Venezuelan city of El Callao, as a result of heavy rains in the area, emergency services said on Monday, quoted by Reuters, BTA reported.
Emergency and rescue teams said rescue operations were continuing and that bodies had been found in three separate shafts of the "Cuatro Esquinas de Caratal" mine.
"The first phase of rescue operations is pumping water from all shafts in the sector to reduce the water level, and then rescue options will be assessed," emergency services officials wrote on social media.
The death toll is based on accounts of other miners, rescuers told Associated Press. The flooding caused a collapse in the vertical shafts. El Callao is a mining town with a population of 30,000, most of whom depend directly or indirectly on gold mining, the AP said.