At least 35 goldmine workers were killed in a landslide in Afghanistan's northern Badakhshan province on Sunday, a police spokesman said.

Sanaullah Rohani, a provincial police spokesman in Badakhshan, also said 20 were injured while they were working inside the mine in Kohistan district.

Landslides are frequent in the northern mountainous provinces of Afghanistan.

Villagers had dug a 60-metre (200-feet) deep shaft in a river bed to search for gold. They were inside when the walls fell in.

The provincial governor's spokesman Nik Mohammad Nazari told French Press Agency (AFP) the miners were not professionals.

"The villagers have been involved in this business for decades with no government control over them," Nazari said.

"We have sent a rescue team to the area, but villagers have already started removing bodies from the site."