Four gold miners died in the collapse of a closed mine tunnel that was still being worked by local people in the western part of this Central American country, authorities have said.
Villanueva Mayor Juan Fernando Gomez told local media yesterday about the accident occurred Monday night as miners were preparing to leave the tunnels during a heavy downpour.
The four were part of a group of 15 working the site about 115 miles west of Managua. The others made it out safely. Searchers were able to recover the bodies of all four dead miners.
Col Vladimir Martinez of the civil defense command said local miners knew the risks but had continued entering the mine.
In August, a collapse at another mine killed seven people near Nicaragua's Caribbean coast.
