Three illegal miners are reported to have died in a mining pit at Hiawa in the Amenfi West district of the Western Region on Tuesday. The miners, all males in their thirties, died when a pit they were working in collapsed on them. The bodies have been retrieved and deposited at the Wassa-Akropong Government Hospital morgue, ASP Emmanuel Mensore, the Crime Officer for the area, told Joy News. He said information gathered at the scene indicated that the miners were sitting at the edge of the pit when it caved in. “We were told that three people actually went to work in the pit, and according to [eyewitnesses] because it rained heavily that day, they couldn’t enter [the pit] and they were sitting just at the edge of the pit and in the course of that it caved in and the debris covered them.” The police are investigating the case and would come out with a report at the appropriate time, he said. A similar incident in the Ashanti region’s Amansie East District just last week claimed one life. It comes after a report by the Minerals Commission said 61 people have died in uncovered pits within the last nine months in the Ashanti region alone.