Fourteen people were killed overnight Tuesday when a small-scale mine in a tin-rich area of eastern DR Congo collapsed.
The incident happened in Niyabibwe, about 100 kilometres (60 miles) north of Bukavu, the capital of South Kivu province.
Miners had dug a shaft to look for cassiterite, a source of tin, but the walls caved in after heavy rain.
A senior administrative official, Muhima Kateete, “the search for survivors began at around 3 am and is ongoing”.
He added that fourteen bodies have been recovered, and there are nine injured.
Delphin Birimbi, head of a local association of NGOs, said the toll was provisional.
Nine people are in hospital for serious injuries, a health worker said.
Accidents are common and frequently deadly in the Democratic Republic of Congo’s subsistence mines, where safety is poor and risk-taking high.
Figures indicating the scale of the problem are sketchy, given that many mines are illegal and remote.