Dozens of people have been killed in the collapse of a defunct gold mine in Sudan’s West Kordofan province, according to the country’s state-run mining company.

Sudanese Mineral Resources Company Limited said in a statement that the collapse of the closed, non-functioning mine took place in the village of Fuja, in En Nahud locality, some 700km south of the capital, Khartoum. It said there were at least 31 deaths and also injuries, without giving a specific tally. Later reports put the death toll at 40.

Local media reported that several shafts collapsed at the Darsaya mine, and that besides the dead at least eight injured people were taken to a local hospital.