Fourteen people were killed and seven others injured following the collapse of an illegal gold mine in southwestern Colombia, local authorities said on Monday, Reuters reported from Bogotá. The accident took place in the rural Chambero sector of the Santa Bárbara de Iscuandé municipality, in the province of Nariño. Al Jazeera also listed the collapse among its world disaster reports, with the same toll of 14 dead and seven injured.

Search and rescue operations have concluded, Nariño Governor Luis Alfonso Escobar said. The governor called on the national government, the National Mining Agency and the Ministry of Mines and Energy to accelerate the formalisation process for illegal and small-scale miners, to improve working conditions and safety standards.

The disaster is the second of its kind in Nariño in little over two months: in August, 13 people died in a similar mining accident in the town of Policarpa, also in Nariño, Reuters reported. Informal and unregulated mining is common in rural parts of Colombia, where operations often lack adequate safety infrastructure, leading to frequent fatal accidents.

Sources: Reuters (Bogotá, 19 October 2026, reporting by Luis Jaime Acosta; Nariño Governor Luis Alfonso Escobar); Al Jazeera world reports.