Shillong: As the rescue operations intensifies to save 15 trapped miners in a coal mine in Meghalaya, two coal miners were killed in the state after another mine collapsed in Meghalaya's East Jaintia Hills, an official said on Sunday.

The fresh incident at Mooknor, Jalyiah village, about 5 km from the district headquarters in East Jaintia Hills came to light after one Philip Bareh filed a report that his nephew Elad Bareh (26) had been missing from his home since Friday.

According to district police chief Sylvester Nongtnger, “A search was conducted and his body was found in front of a 'rat-hole' coal mine. When we further checked inside the narrow mine, another body was found. The second man was identified as Monoj Basumatry.”

"It is suspected that boulders hit them when they tried to extract coal," Nongtnger said, adding that efforts are on to find out the owner of the illegal mine.

An inquest was conducted and the dead bodies were forwarded for autopsy.

Meanwhile, rescue operations to evacuate the 15 trapped coal miners at Ksan village were partially affected after the high-capacity specialized dewatering pumps of Kirloskar Brothers Limited and Coal India Limited encountered technical snags on Sunday, an official said.

"Pumping machines of Kirloskar and CIL have been stopped for the time being because of some technical problem. The pumps will be restored soon," said rescue operations spokesperson, Reginald Susngi.

However, he said Odisha firefighters continued to drain out water from the two abandoned coal mines.