Rescuers in Russia worked through the night to identify several missing people after a dam collapse caused the death of at least 15 people at a Siberian gold mine.

“It will continue despite everything,” a spokesman for the local emergency agency told the AFP news agency.

About 300 people have been deployed to search the area using boats and divers. At least seven of those missing after the initial disaster have already been found, RT reported.

Dmitry Peskov, a spokesman for Vladimir Putin says the Russian president has ordered relief to families of the victims and an investigation into the cause of the accident.

The dam failure resulted in rushing water flooding dormitories of workers as they slept, the Associated Press reported.

The collapse happened after heavy rain near the village of Shchetinkino, in Russia’s Krasnoyarsk region.

A criminal investigation into workplace safety violations has been opened, officials said.

“The hydro-technical facility was self-constructed and, I believe, all rules I can and can not think of were violated,” Yuri Lapshin, a regional official told Russia’s RIA news agency, Reuters reported.