Ten miners were buried alive when an open pit mining collapsed in Semirara Island, Caluya town in Antique province on Friday, Manila Bulletin reported.

Five of those buried alive have been confirmed dead, while five others were still missing. Most of them were heavy equipment operators.

The Regional Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council said there were 13 workers inside the mine site at the time of the incident. But three of them were fortunate to escape, while the rest were buried alive.

Antique governor Rhodora Cadiao told Manila Bulletin that the SMPC-owned Panian coal mine collapsed at around 3:45 a.m. yesterday. SMPC, in a statement, said the northern edge of Panian mine gave way, burying the workers.

The governor said it was raining heavily for days on the mine site. She surmised that the rainfall from the past several weeks had attributed to the collapse of the open mining pit.

SMPC said it was coordinating with national and local authorities to keep them updated on the search and rescue efforts and other necessary measures, including ensuring the adequate supply of coal for power generation since it has stopped operations in the affected area in compliance with an order from the Department of Energy.

The Department of Energy on Friday suspended operations at the mine.

Ten buried alive in Philippines mine collapse - Thai PBS English News