Two persons died yesterday afternoon when a mining pit in the Mahdia area in Region 8 caved in during rainy weather.

According to a release from the police, Karan Roopnarine, 32, of Triumph, East Coast Demerara and Rohan Hibbeizt, 35, of Long Creek, Linden Soesdyke Highway, lost their lives when a mining pit in which they were working at the White Hole area at Mahdia caved in.

According to the police, earth from the pit was removed with the use of a dredge and an excavator and the men’s bodies were subsequently recovered from the pit.

A resident at Mahdia told Stabroek News last evening that it was raining around 2:30 yesterday afternoon when the community was informed that a mining pit, owned by a person whose name was only given as “Bernard,” caved in, trapping three men. The resident said that miners who were on the scene informed that the “earth at the sides of the pit became loose and the pit began to fall in,” trapping the men dozens of feet beneath. Miners then scrambled to save the life of the third person, who sustained several injuries about his body in the process.

The resident said that the rescue team resorted to “jetting” the pit in order to save the third individual while it took close to 45 minutes before the bodies of the two deceased were recovered.

The bodies of the deceased are at the Mahdia Hospital mortuary.