News is emerging of a mine accident in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo that has killed at least 30 people, AFP news agency reports.

It says that a landslide a week ago trapped miners at an informal gold mine in Misisi, South Kivu province.

"Proper searches only began today [Thursday]," local official Aime Mutipula is quoted by AFP as saying.

A worker with a local NGO that specialises in the mining sector said: "At least 37 people have died according to a provisional toll."

Another person told AFP the death toll was 32.