PROVIDENCE, Ky. — Two coal miners were missing after an underground rock fall in western Kentucky early today, a union representative said.

Tim Miller from the United Mine Workers Union said at least two others escaped when a ceiling collapsed at the Dotiki mine near Providence, about 150 miles west of Louisville. Miller described it as a large underground coal mine.

Calls to mine operator Alliance Coal Co. were not immediately answered.

Miller said he was called about 6 a.m. by a woman who had received a call from the mine. The woman said she was told her husband and her son, who were working in the mine, are safe, but that two other miners were missing.

Miller described a rock fall as a ceiling collapse, usually in an isolated area.

He said the Dotiki Mine is a large operation that employs more than 300 miners.