Myanmar, home to jade mining, was swooped with a major disaster, with a landslide close to a jade mine in Hpakant, in Myanmar’s northern state of Kachin, hitting a makeshift settlement, reports say. Kachin is known to produce some of the best quality jade stones in the world. The incident took place at a 60-metre-high mountain of earth and from the jade mines, discarded by the mining companies. Many of the victims were scavengers who lived close to the dump areas to search for a jade in the pile.

The incident took place around 3 a.m. on Saturday, when workers were asleep, reports say. It affected around 70 huts with sleeping workers who were buried under the debris. The cause of the landslide is unknown, although the mines and soil dump sites are dangerous and workers picking through the slag piles for jade often face life threatening situations.