47 still missing in China coal mine collapse

China's state broadcaster CCTV said on Friday the death toll has risen to six after an open pit coal mine collapsed in northern China.Forty-seven people were still missing.

Excavators and bulldozers were digging into the 80-meter-high pile to move the rocks and dirt and unearth the buried people.CCTV said before strikes of heavy machineries, each area must be detected with life detectors to make sure there is no sign of life in the area.

Work has become very difficult after Wednesday's mine collapse in the vast Inner Mongolia region's Alxa League, because of the large size of the pile formed by the landscape and the risk of further collapse, CCTV said.Inner Mongolia is a key region for mining coal, minerals and rare earths, which critics say has ravaged the original landscape of mountains, grassy steppes and deserts.