200 feared killed in Sierra Leone mine cave-in

FREETOWN - At least 200 people were killed when a trench collapsed at an unofficial gold mine in Sierra Leone, the West African country's Ministry of Mineral Resources said on Friday.

The accident occurred in the south of the country, about 180 miles (290 km) from the capital, Freetown.

"Over 200 artisanal gold miners were killed when a . . . trench dug by the miners collapsed," a ministry spokesman said.

Informal, or artisanal, gold mining is common in mineral-bearing African countries.

The miners usually have no professional training or equipment and often dig by hand, and accidents are frequent at the sites, which do not meet safety standards found at professionally engineered mines.