NEW DELHI: At least three coal miners were trapped inside an illegal rat-hole mine in Patkai hills in Tinsukia district of Assam following a landslide, officials said on Sunday.

The incident occurred around 12:30 am in the illegal Tikok West mining site between Bargolai and Namdang, located under the Tikok colliery in Ledo, a senior official of the district administration told news agency PTI.

"Three coal miners are trapped inside the illegal rat-hole mine after the landslide in Patkai hills. Among those trapped is Dawa Cherpa from Bhojpur in Nepal and two workers are from Meghalaya, identified as John and Fenaal," he added.

In total, four coal workers were engaged in the work of procuring illegal coal from the rat-hole mine, the official said.

"Three of them went inside the mine and the fourth one was assisting in coal transportation. Suddenly, a landslide occurred, which trapped the three workers inside the mine," the official added.

"It has been suspected that they died inside the coal mine but we cannot say it until we get their bodies," the official said.

The administration is carrying out a rescue operation at the moment and several agencies are being called in to assist, he added.