The Daily News quoted Manyara Regional Commissioner Henry Shekifu as saying five bodies had been recovered so far after a torrential downpour on Friday.

'Witnesses said flood waters entered eight pits and then spread to other pits, drowning working miners,' the state-run newspaper said on its Web site.

Volunteers rushed to the scene on Saturday and the government said it was bringing equipment to drain the water as fast as possible. But electricity poles in the area had been brought down by the floods, it said, and engineers were battling to restore power for rescuers.

The newspaper said 100 miners died in similar floods in the area 1998. The region is the only place where the valuable blue gemstone tanzanite is found - prized by jewellery-lovers in wealthy nations.

Mining disasters are not uncommon in Tanzania's 'wild north", where small-scale independent miners dig remote gemfields in the shadow of Mount Kilimanjaro. Miners sometimes die in explosions or due to suffocation.

In 2002, at least 48 miners were suffocated when a compressor used to pump clean air into the gemstone mine failed. -- REUTERS