Rescue work at the site of a landslide that buried 83 miners in southwest China's Tibet Autonomous Region was suspended on Monday for fear of further slides.

By Monday afternoon, rescuers had retrieved 36 bodies from the site of the massive landslide, which happened on Friday.

Rescue work was later suspended after geological experts found four cracks with lengths of more than 600 meters on the mountain top, posing risks of a subsequent landslide.

Rescuers were asked to retreat to the safe zone and wait for monitoring and evaluation from relevant departments.

More than 4,500 rescuers and 200 machines were working at the site to find the buried miners, said a spokesman with the rescue headquarters.Intermittent snow at the site, however, was hampering rescue efforts,

The landslide struck a workers' camp of the Jiama Copper Polymetallic Mine around 6 a.m. on March 29, burying 83 workers and 11 pieces of machinery from Tibet Huatailong Mining Development Co. Ltd., a subsidiary of China National Gold Group Corporation, the country's largest gold producer.

(Xinhua News Agency April 1, 2013)