The landslide occurred at an open-pit gold mine in Nariño, near the Ecuadorian border.
On Thursday, the National Unit for Disaster Risk Management (UNGRD) confirmed that at least 13 people were killed and seven injured in a landslide at an open-pit gold mine being operated in the Colombian department of Nariño, which borders Ecuador.
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The collapse occurred Wednesday afternoon in the village of Puerto Rico, a remote area that is part of the municipality of Policarpa, as informed by Gabriel Ocaña, the UNGRD director in Nariño.
“Unfortunately, there was a collapse of a slope at a mine in the Puerto Rico village… that affected people who worked there, of whom 13 died. Seven people are injured,” he said.
Communities and firefighters from Pasto, Policarpa, and El Tambo municipalities assisted in the rescue efforts, which continued throughout the night with the help of heavy machinery and concluded early Thursday.
#Urgente
13 MUERTOS en derrumbe de mina de oro en Colombia — Estación de radio CaracolSegún las autoridades, las acciones de los mineros llevaron al colapso de la pendiente. pic.twitter.com/evQB85YXlL
— ClarOscuro Noticias (@ClarOscuroNews) August 20, 2026
The text reads, “Urgent: 13 DEAD in gold mine collapse in Colombia — Caracol Radio Station. According to authorities, the miners’ actions led to the collapse of the slope.”
“The people who were trapped were rescued,” stressed the UNGRD director in Nariño, who added that the injured were taken to hospitals in the area for treatment. Among those killed are four Indigenous people from the same family belonging to the Quillasinga people.
The municipality of Policarpa is located in northeastern Nariño, about 95 kilometers from Pasto, in a mountainous, difficult-to-access area where the Franco Benavides column operates. It is part of the Central General Staff (EMC), the main dissident group of the former FARC guerrilla.
The tragedy occurred 10 days after the magnitude 7.4 earthquake that struck Colombia on Aug. 10 and killed at least 319 people, according to figures from the Institute of Legal Medicine.
teleSUR/ JF
Source: EFE
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