Police in South Kivu Province said that as many as 500 miners are believed to be trapped following a series of landslides in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo.
A police spokesman said that ten bodies have been recovered since the collapse in a remote area on Sunday. Volunteers are working to recover the remaining bodies and survivors.
According to him, “Information on the exact number of casualties is difficult to verify, as the affected miners did not work for a company but were working in the informal mining sector in the resource-rich area.”
Numerous internally displaced people who had fled the ongoing fighting between government troops and Rwanda-backed M23 rebels in eastern Congo were also said to be among those buried.
The hilly area was recently hit by heavy rains.
The police spokesman said landslides were also reported in villages in the region.
However, there has been no report of casualties so far.