LA PAZ, April 4, 2025 (BSS/AFP) - Five people, including a baby, were killed in an explosion Thursday at a mining camp in western Bolivia where rival cooperatives have been fighting over a gold seam, the interior ministry said.

The blast occurred in the early morning in Sorata, 90 miles (150 kilometers) north of the capital La Paz, in a three-story building that housed gold mining equipment and machinery.

Three men, one woman, and a one-year-old child were killed in the attack, according to the police.

Six other people were injured, four of them seriously, a doctor at the hospital that treated them told AFP.

"The explosion occurred inside a diesel drum, which amplified the shock wave," Deputy Interior Minister Jhonny Aguilera told a press conference, adding he suspected an act of "terrorism."

Rival miners have repeatedly come to blows in Sorata, situated in an area experiencing a gold rush, driven by the 260 percent increase in the price of the metal over the last 10 years.

In July 2024, a explosion during a clash between miners left two police officers dead.

In Bolivia, 57.5 percent of mineral production is in the hands of mining cooperatives.

Most gold mining takes part in the north of the department of La Paz.