Five persons who were allegedly involved in illegal mining died on Monday after becoming stuck in a mine at Nangruma in the North East Region's Mamprugu/Moaduri District.
According to reports, they were searching for gold in an abandoned pit that some Chinese nationals are claimed to have already dug and left unexplored.
On Monday afternoon, the hole caved in and trapped them.
Kwaku Noah, Issahaku Osman, Mohammed Ibrahim, Salifu, and Aliu Waliu have been named as the suspects.
The dead were taken out of the pit by a rescue team and given to the families for burial, according to John Kwaku Alhassan, the North East Regional Director of the National Disaster Management Organization (NADMO), who verified the occurrence to Mohammed Fugu of Graphic Online in Tamale.
He clarified that it was claimed that the illegal miners had entered the abandoned hole to sweep up floodwaters and look for gold.
The illegal miners went there to pump out the water and seek for gold and were stranded, he said. "The pit was dug by some Chinese nationals but it has since been abandoned," he added.
Mr. Alhassan stated that a team of NADMO representatives had subsequently been sent to the region to carry out an investigation and evaluate the situation of illicit mining.
On Monday, a group of police officers was also dispatched to the disaster area.