Four men are trapped 160m underground today after a tunnel collapsed in a gold mine in southern Ecuador.
Authorities said rescue efforts were under way.
A miner who survived the cave-in told authorities that four of his colleagues remained trapped in the mine near the city of Portovelo, about 400km south west of the capital Quito. The mine is operated by the Ecuadorean company Minesadco.
The collapse happened yesterday and blocked a tunnel, trapping the workers at the fifth level of the mine, deputy mining minister Jorge Espinosa said. The condition of the men was unknown.
Mr Espinosa said 50 rescue workers were digging out the main tunnel while others were preparing to possibly dig a hole from the side to reach the gallery where the miners were believed to be trapped.
The Ministry of Nonrenewable Resources identified the miners as Paul Aguirre, Pedro Mendoza, Walter Vera and Angel Vera.
The mine collapse comes two days after the near-flawless rescue of 33 miners trapped for 69 days nearly a half a mile underground in the San Jose mine in Chile, a drama that transfixed the world.
Meanwhile, in Colombia, one miner died in an explosion and a second when a rock fell on him, in two separate mines in the country’s central and western regions, authorities said.
In the country’s north east, rescuers were still working to free two miners who had been trapped for four days in a coal mine. Their condition was unknown.
AP