Morocco’s ‘mines of death’ claim another victim

A second person was seriously injured in the accident in a disused coal mine in the northeastern city of Jerada, a local activist told AFP.

The authorities confirmed that a man had died in an abandoned mine in the city.

The latest deadly accident brought out thousands of demonstrators who gathered in front of the local police station, Mohamed Bounif, a representative in the area of the Moroccan association for human rights, told AFP.

Mass protests against economic marginalisation broke out in the city in December after two brothers died in a tunnel accident.

Each day hundreds of people risk their lives to extract coal by hand from the shuttered pits.