11 dead, several injured in Shaanxi galamsey explosion

The explosion, which happened on Wednesday, also had a lot of the mine workers injured.

Confirming the incident, an eye witness told Accra based Starr FM that: "The incident happened around 3:10 a.m. before dawn today (Wednesday) after the Shaanxi people blasted their explosives. The small-scale miners were inside their pits when the Shaanxi people blasted and the smoke choked the miners."

"Two died at the regional hospital and one died at Datuko. Right now, five bodies are lying on the floor with foam coming out from their mouths and noses,” said the eyewitness.

However, Maxwell Wooma, a spokesperson for Shaanxi Mining Company, the site of the explosion, has denied responsibility.

“I received a call around 1:00 a.m. that some people had been brought to the regional hospital and others the Afrikids Medical Centre by one gentleman called Kofi Macho and another Bantama Kwesi. They say they inhaled gases when they were doing their operations. So, I asked whether these were our staff and they indicated ‘no’."

“They are not our staff. Most of these things happen at the blind side of our own operations. But because we are very close to them, they usually use us as a convenient alibi when these accidents occur. It’s in the course of their own operations that this has occurred. When we get to the hospital, we can establish who brought who, how many did the person bring, at what time and where were they working? At least, this should be able to assist the public with the truth and the facts. It’s very clear that the (victims) were not our staff,” he added.