At least 30 people were killed in Afghanistan on Sunday when a tunnel they were digging to mine gold collapsed, AFP reported. At least seven people were injured in the accident in Kohistan district of the country’s northern Badakhshan province.

“Poor villagers during winters try to compensate their earnings by pursuing illegal mining,” a spokesperson for the provincial governor, Nek Mohammad Nazari, said. “They dig tunnels to enter the mines.”

A police spokesperson for the province said a landslide caused the tunnel to cave-in.

A spokesperson for the National Disaster Management Authority said the families of the dead miners will receive 50,000 afghanis each (approximately Rs 46,000).