The men were killed in a region that has seen growing conflict over access to ore in recent years. The mine has also been a hotbed of illegal gold mining.

Peru is to impose a curfew and temporarily suspended gold mining in the northern district of Pataz where 13 people were killed after a kidnapping inside a gold mine.

Thirteen miners have been found dead inside a mine in Peru after being kidnapped several days earlier. They were working at a gold mine owned by Peruvian mining company Poderosa, which is based in Pataz province, north of the capital Lima.