Eight bodies have been recovered from the debris of a stone quarry that collapsed in south Mizoram’s Hnahthial district on Monday, an official said Tuesday.

Hnahthial district deputy commissioner R Lalremsanga said the bodies of 8 out of 12 people reported missing at the quarry site have been recovered from the debris of the massive landslip till 7am on Tuesday.

Search operations which were on all night will continue till all the missing persons are found, he said.

Lalremsanga, who is also the chairman of district disaster management authority, said that a National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) team comprising of 2 officers and 13 staff arrived at the spot on Tuesday morning.

Of the 12 persons reportedly missing, 4 were employees of ABCI Infrastructures Pvt Ltd while 8 others were a contractor’s employees, he said.

People present at the site said that troopers from Assam Rifles and Border Security Force (BSF) joined local police and people in the rescue operation.

Read more: 13 feared trapped as stone quarry collapsed in southern Mizoram

Earlier, Hnahthial Superintendent of Police (SP) Vineet Kumar had said that the incident occurred at around 3pm on Monday at Maudarh village, near Hnahthial town.

Thirteen people were working when a massive landslide occurred at the stone quarry. Only one worker managed to escape from the spot, the SP said.

Eye witnesses claimed that workers had dug too deep and had upset the stability of the stone quarry resulting in the entire hill crumbling down on the workers.

Lalremsanga said that five earth excavators, a stone crusher and a drilling machine were also completely buried under the debris.

He said that area impacted by the landslide is approximately 5,000 square metres.

The stone quarry is owned by the ABCI, which is executing widening of a section of the national highway between Hnathial town and Dawn village.