El Comal, Nicaragua - Rescue teams in Nicaragua were working frantically on Friday to try to reach 25 workers trapped after a cave-in at a gold mine where at least one miner has died, officials said.
Police, soldiers and other miners were taking part in the operation in the north-west of the country.
The body of the dead miner was seen being recovered in footage broadcast by a local TV station.
The cave-in, blamed on heavy rain, happened in the village of El Comal, local ruling party official Martha Lagos told the website 19 Digital.
“You can hear that there are people alive because we heard voices,” said Lagos.
The mouth of the mine caved in because of a landslide triggered by heavy rain.
Desperate relatives initially tried to dig themselves to reach the trapped miners, but the land was too unstable, press reports said.
The collapse happened early on Thursday but word of it emerged only in the evening because the site is so remote, Lagos said.
The village of El Comal is close to the town of Bonanza, which is perched on the side of a hill in a region that is home to Nicaragua's main gold mines. - AFP