BUNER: An elderly labourer was killed when a marble mine caved in at Landar Sawawai area of Buner district here on Monday.

The victim was identified as Mohammad Jan, 70, from Charsadda district.

Officials at Chinglai police said marble mine owned by Hidayatullah Khan, also from Charsadda, collapsed all of a sudden burying the labourer alive.

Local residents and police retrieved the body and sent it to his native village for burial.

Such incidents are common as there exist no safety measures inside the hundreds of marble mines in the district which is rich in the precious mineral.

Sources said the lease holders earned millions of rupees monthly from these mineral deposits but didn’t bother to put in place safety measures, nor they providing treatment to the injured labourers and paid compensation to the victims’ families.—Correspondent