At least 107 people died Tuesday when an artisanal gold mine collapsed in the village of Zamboye, near the Cameroon border, officials said.

The low-tech mine caved in Tuesday afternoon at the Zamboye mining site in the Nana-Mambere prefecture, about 50 kilometers from the town of Baboua.

Several underground tunnels where miners were working collapsed, according to the Baboua public prosecutor's office. Rescue teams and local residents recovered bodies from the rubble throughout Wednesday, with the death toll expected to rise as more miners remain trapped.

“Finding them alive would be a miracle,” said Bertrand Be Yangué, a member of the Zamboye youth council. “We are saddened and heartbroken to see young men and women perish after coming to the mines to save their families from despair.”

Gervais Ganagoroh, a local Red Cross volunteer involved in relief efforts, confirmed more than 100 bodies had been recovered. Several survivors were critically injured.

Souleymane Bi, deputy mayor of Nana-Mambere prefecture, described the scene as “horrible” and appealed for outside help. “We are calling for help from organisations and all people of goodwill to help,” Bi said.

Cameroonian authorities confirmed multiple nationals were among the dead. Grégoire Mvongo, governor of Cameroon's East Region, said his government was working with Central African officials to repatriate corpses, with four or five bodies received so far. Cameroonian media reported at least four Cameroonian nationals were killed.

The Baboua sub-prefecture prosecutor has opened an investigation to determine the cause of the collapse, identify victims and those responsible for operating the site, and establish potential criminal liability.

Artisanal mine collapses are common in the Central African Republic, where thousands of people work in small-scale extraction with little safety protection. The sector has drawn workers from across the region, including neighboring Cameroon, into informal operations that fall outside state oversight.

“It's difficult for us to establish a formal toll at this stage,” Baboua local official Laurent Ngon Baba told AFP.

By Wednesday night, authorities had recovered 107 bodies from the collapsed pit, according to Amadou Abdon, mayor of the Cameroonian border town of Garoua-Boulaï.

Rescuers continued searching for miners still believed trapped beneath the rubble.