Five illegal miners in the early hours of Monday died at Prestea in the Western Region when a pit in which they were prospecting for gold gave way. Three of the deceased have since been retrieved but local rescuers said they were not natives of the Prestea community. Mr. Iddrisu Salifu Mohammed, Prestea Huni/Valley District Coordinator, National Disaster Management Organization (NADMO), told the Ghana News Agency on Wednesday that the incident occurred around 7:00 am within the concession of Golden Star Bogoso Prestea Limited. The NADMO officer said upon hearing the news around 9:00am, he hired the services of an excavator operator to help rescue the trapped miners. He said the machine dug for several hours but only three out of the five bodies were retrieved with the remaining two still trapped underground. According to him, the bodies of the three have since been deposited at the Prestea Government hospital for autopsy. He said the corpses would be buried in a mass grave. Mr Adu-Blay Koffie, Member of Parliament for Prestea Huni/Valley, who was at the accident scene, said the only way such disasters could be avoided in the near future is by regularizing the actives of the illegal miners. He asked the Government to allocate concessions to the illegal miners and task the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) as well as the Minerals Commission to monitor their activities to help save the nation’s forest reserves and water bodies as well as human lives.