LISBON (Reuters) - At least two people died and four were missing on Monday when a stretch of a motorway about 100 meters (328 ft) long collapsed into a quarry in central Portugal after heavy rains, officials said.

The area, between the towns of Borba and Vila Vicosa, some 200 km (124 miles) east of Lisbon, is famous for its marble and granite production and the road passes over various deep quarries, some of them abandoned.

Civil protection officials said an excavator, and possibly two light vehicles, fell into the quarry from a height of 80 meters with people inside and were buried under tonnes of mud and water. Rescue efforts were “extremely complicated” due to possible further land slides, they said.