At least 31 people have been killed after a mound of rubbish at a major waste site collapsed onto nearby homes in Guinea’s capital Conakry, the government has said.

Another 22 people were injured, including six seriously, in the city’s Dar-es-Salam area.

“Significant” resources and personnel – including the military – were deployed to search for survivors after the collapse at about 02:00 local time following heavy rain overnight, the government added in a statement.

One woman told local media her five children had died in the disaster. There are fears that the death toll will rise further.

Rescuers were later seen using excavators to comb through a mountain of scattered rubbish at the site as local residents gathered nearby.

One eyewitness said many people were buried when a second part of the site gave way.

“People tried to come to the rescue [after the first section collapsed]… They came running and climbed onto the refuse to see if anyone was there,” Robert Kamano Sâa told the Associated Press.

“That was when the second section collapsed in three successive stages, cascading down. And that is what poured onto the people.”

Guinea’s Prime Minister Mamadou Oury Bah has visited the scene to assess the situation and oversee the search efforts.

Mamadouba Bangoura, who lost his house in the collapse, said he and his family were woken up by the “loud noise” of the first wave of rubbish, which did not reach them.

“[Then] the second wave came. That is what knocked over – pushed the house – and it fell,” he told Reuters news agency.

“There were a lot of people [buried]… It is very, very difficult to talk about it because seeing a human being lose their life like that is pathetic, it is so painful.”