Indonesian rescuers scrambled Wednesday to find dozens buried in the collapse of an illegal gold mine that killed at least four people, the disaster agency said. The effort to save survivors at the remote site on Sulawesi island was hampered by steep terrain and unstable soil conditions after the collapse triggered a landslide Tuesday evening, it said.

Four people have been found dead while 19 others were pulled from the rubble alive on Wednesday with minor and serious injuries, according to officials. "Dozens of people were mining for gold at this location when suddenly beams and supporting boards broke due to unstable soil conditions," said disaster agency spokesman Sutopo Purwo Nugroho.

More than three dozen people may still be trapped at the site in the Bolaang Mongondow region of North Sulawesi, where some five miners were killed in December after an illegal gold mine accident.

Copyright Agence France-Presse, 2019