KINSHASA —A bridge at a cobalt mine in southeastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) collapsed due to overcrowding, killing at least 32 people, a provincial official said on Sunday.

The bridge came down on Saturday on to a flooded zone at the mine in Lualaba province, Roy Kaumba Mayonde, the provincial interior minister, told reporters. He said 32 bodies had been recovered and more were being searched for.

More than 200,000 people are estimated to be working in giant illegal cobalt mines in the central African country.

“Despite the strict prohibition on accessing the site due to heavy rainfall and the risk of landslides, illegal diggers forced their way into the quarry,” Mayonde said.

A report by the DRC’s Artisanal and Small-Scale Mining Support and Guidance Service, or SAEMAPE, government agency on Sunday said the gunfire from soldiers at the site sparked panic among the miners who rushed to the bridge resulting in the fall that left them “piled on top of each other causing the deaths and injuries.”

While Mayonde put the death toll at at least 32, the report said at least 40 people had lost their lives.

The mine has long been at the center of a dispute between wildcat miners, a cooperative meant to organize operations, and the site’s legal operators, the report added.

The DRC is the world’s largest producer of cobalt, a mineral used to make lithium-ion batteries for electric vehicles and other products, with Chinese companies controlling 80% of the production in the central African country.

Accusations of child labor, unsafe conditions, and corruption have long plagued the country’s mining industry.

Mineral-rich eastern DRC has for decades been ripped apart by violence from government forces and different armed groups, including the Rwanda-backed M23, whose recent resurgence has escalated the conflict, worsening an already acute humanitarian crisis. — Agencies