At least 30 people have been killed in a gold mine collapse in northeastern Afghanistan.
Villagers had dug a 60m (200ft) deep shaft in a river bed to search for the gold and were inside when the walls caved in.
“The people were using an excavator to dig a big hole in the river when it collapsed, trapping dozens of workers,” Mr Raghi said.
“At least 30 people have been killed and seven wounded.”
It was not clear why the shaft collapsed.
However, the provincial governor’s spokesman, Nik Mohammad Nazari, told AFP the miners were not professionals.
“The villagers have been involved in this business for decades with no government control over them,” Mr Nazari said.
“We have sent a rescue team to the area, but villagers have already started removing bodies from the site.”
Defence ministry helicopters have been dispatched to deliver cash to the families of the victims and airlift the wounded to hospitals, said Hashmat Bahaduri, spokesman for the national disaster management authority.
He said that families of the wounded would receive 10,000 afghanis (£104) in compensation, while those of the dead would get 50,000 afghanis (£521).
Badakhshan is a remote, mountainous province in northeast Afghanistan bordering Tajikistan, China and Pakistan.
Illegal mining is common in Afghanistan, which is rich in resources, with the Taliban relying on the sector for much of its revenue.
It has over 1,400 mineral fields, containing barite, chromite, coal, copper and gold among many other minerals.
