At least four workers were feared dead following a landslide at the open cast mine of Mahanadi Coalfields Ltd (MCL) in Odisha's Talcher while 9 others injured in the incident, a company official said on Wednesday.

The open cast mine in Odisha, with a production capacity of 20,000 tonnes a day, had been shut after the late Tuesday accident, "It will take at least a week to resume operations," Mehra said.

India's numerous illegal mines, often in remote hillyterrain, also have a poor safety record, although there is little data as manyaccidents go unreported.

In December, at least 15 miners were trapped in anillegal "rat-hole" coal mine in the northeastern state of Meghalaya and thousands of workers in Meghalaya, including children,have been killed in the so-called rat-hole mines, in which miners crawl intonarrow shafts on bamboo ladders to dig for low-quality coal.

Coal miners working during the night shift at Bharatpur open cast minein Talcher Coalfields of MCL came under a dump slide due to a strata failure.

The accident occurred between in the night on Tuesday when a portion ofearth broke loose trapping 13 workers and machinery at work.

The fellow miners and rescue teams immediately swung into action and rescued 8 injured workers, who were shifted to the company's Central Hospital at Talcher for treatment of minor injuries.

However, a rescue operation is underway to recover four missing workers,who have been trapped in the debris.

The Director (Technical/Operations) and the Director (Personnel) of MCLhave rushed to Talcher to oversee the rescue operations.