At least 32 people have been killed in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), according to officials, after a bridge at a copper and cobalt mine collapsed due to overcrowding.

The incident occurred at the Kalando mine in southeastern Lualaba province on Saturday, the province's interior minister, Roy Kaumbe Mayonde, said on Sunday.

"Despite a formal ban on access to the site because of the heavy rain and the risk of a landslide, wildcat miners forced their way into the quarry," said Mayonde.

The miners rushing across the makeshift bridge, built to get across a flooded trench, made it collapse, he added.

A report by the DRC's Artisanal and Small-Scale Mining Support and Guidance Service, or SAEMAPE, said the gunfire from soldiers at the site had sparked panic among the miners.

The miners then rushed to the bridge, resulting in the fall that left them "piled on top of each other, causing the deaths and injuries", it said.

While Mayonde put the death toll at least 32, the report said at least 40 people had lost their lives.