Philippine slum stream turns into gold rush site

Link : http://uk.news.yahoo.com/041002/323/f3rri.html



MANILA, (AFP) - Hundreds of people have flocked to a polluted stream in an overcrowded slum in the Philippine capital after some residents found gold nuggets, witnesses say.

A village chief said it was a puzzle as to how the nuggets got into the trash-strewn and heavily silted channel.

"It is puzzle. All we got from this before was trash," he said.

Alfredo Gallo, 15, found a nugget of gold after scouring the riverbed on Friday. His father sold the gold to a pawnshop for 30,000 pesos (535 dollars) and bought a television set and a bicycle.

"I scratched the riverbed with a stick and saw a yellow thing glittering. I immediately took it and ran home," Gallo told AFP.

The channel frequently overflows during the rainy season, flooding low-lying slums and causing intestinal diseases.

Construction worker Danilo Sabas meanwhile drove from the other side of Manila and took off from work to pan for gold in the stream as children played and swam nearby.

He used fish nets and steel pans and ploughed the waterbed before finding a small piece of metal which he believed was gold. He showed it to photographers and said he would take it to a pawnbroker later in the day.

"I will sell this immediately," he said.