At least one person has been killed and more than 60 were feared buried after an illegal gold mine collapsed in Indonesia, officials have said.
Rescuers were using spades and ropes to dig out dozens left trapped following the landslide on southeast Asian country’s island of Sulawesi on Wednesday.
Search teams said they could hear the voices of some of those trapped in makeshift mining shafts but officials said they could not be sure how many would survive.
"We are able to detect that many of them are still alive because we can hear their voices, as there are some places where air is getting in and out and there are gaps in the mud," Abdul Muin Paputungan of Indonesia's disaster agency said.
Mr Paputungan said one person was confirmed dead and 14 people with injuries ranging from light to serious had been rescued.
As many as 60 people were buried, he said.
Officials earlier said at least three bodies had been discovered but the death toll was later amended.
Dozens of people were rescued by 8am on Wednesday (local time) after the mine collapsed the previous evening, according to officials.
The Indonesian government has banned such small-scale gold mining, although regional authorities often turn a blind eye to the practice in more remote areas.
With little regulation, the mines are prone to accidents.
Search and rescue teams and military officers were working together but using simple tools such as spades and rope because conditions remained dangerous, with the land still prone to shifting and sliding, Mr Paputungan said.
He said the families of victims had started gathering at the mine site to wait for news as the rescue mission continued.
Photos released by the agency showed rescue workers and villagers on a muddy hillside scrambling to pull out survivors and carry them away on stretchers during the night.
Disaster agency spokesman Sutopo Purwo Nugroho said dozens of people were mining for gold when beams and support boards broke suddenly.
"Evacuation efforts continued through the night because of the number of people estimated to be buried," he said.
Agencies contributed to this report
