Landslides in Indonesian gold mine; 20 workers buried inside, rains delay rescue

Twenty workers were buried alive after landslides occurred in a gold mine in Indonesia's West Kalimantan province, a rescue official said on Saturday.

The incident took place at the Kinande village of Bengkayang district on Thursday night, but the information of the incident was received by the rescuers of the provincial search and rescue office on Friday night, the official told Xinhua news agency.

"We got the information on Friday night, and immediately deployed our personnel to the scene," he said.

The rescue operation was hampered by the heavy downpours over the past few days, the remote location of the mine and poor communication facilities there, said the official.

Military personnel, the personnel of the local disaster management and mitigation agency and villagers are also involved in the search and rescue mission in the mine area, he added.