The search has been suspended for two quarry workers who are missing after an apparent landslide swept several vehicles into a pit nearly 100 metres deep.

Two trucks and an excavator were trapped in huge mounds of loose gravel at the bottom of the snowy crater in L'Epiphanie, Que., just east of Montreal.

A third worker managed to climb out of the excavator with what police described as minor injuries, after the vehicle tumbled down the steep embankment.

Provincial police spokesman Benoit Richard says specialists working with rescue crews recommended suspending the search until morning.

He says search teams need to be able to see how the gravel in the pit might shift while they worked.

Repentigny, Que., police spokesman Bruno Marier says rescue workers will attempt to bring heavy search equipment down to the site in the morning.

Photos: Patrick Sanfaçon (La Presse), Google Maps