"mine"

According to the officials, both of them had gone into the underground mine to attend the second shift duty around 2 pm.

Illegal or informal mining operations are commonplace in Indonesia, providing a tenuous livelihood to those who labour in conditions with a high risk of serious injury or death.

Twenty-two miners were trapped about 600 meters underground following an explosion on January 10 at a partially built gold mine in Qixia, under the city of Yantai, in Shandong Province.

Official sources said that all six coal mine workers, who hailed from Karimganj district of southern Assam, were digging a tunnel in one of the illegal coal mines near Rymbai village.

Two bodies have been retrieved so far and efforts are underway to trace the others, Koderma Superintendent of Police (SP) Ehtesham Waquarib said.

The accident took place on Friday evening when workers were dismantling equipment in the pit, trapping 24 workers underground.