KINSHASA, Jan. 12 (Xinhua) -- Six people were killed and two others still trapped after the collapse of an abandoned cassiterite mining quarry in Manono, Katanga province of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DR Congo), well placed sources reported on Monday.

The tragedy occurred on Sunday afternoon at a quarry popularly called "red water". Among the six bodies recovered were five children ages six to 15 and a woman, a mother of the three children who were killed in the accident.

Two other people were still trapped underground. The rescue efforts halted on Sunday night before resumed on Monday, according to two survivors who escaped unhurt.

The toll in the abandoned quarries of Congo-Etain has reignited the debate on the question of women and children working in mines, an issue condemned by many local associations. The critics are complaining about negative results in their sensitization campaigns against the practice.

"Until this day, neither these associations nor the mining police have managed to clear from the quarries the children and women who are always the victims of extreme poverty that pushes them to risk their lives," a member of one of the associations indicated.

This kind of collapse is frequent during the rainy season in the mineral rich central African country.