Army being called on to help trapped boy at illegal mine

Rescue operations have been suspended at the Baltimore Mine shaft where 5-year old Richard Thole is trapped. But all hope is not lost as City of Ekurhuleni Mayor Mzwandile Masina is asking the South African Defence Force to send in its experts to retrieve Richard.

Mine Rescue operations have declared it unsafe to go any further due to rockfalls that occurred earlier on Wednesday.

Masina said he was concerned about every day that passes with no sign of the boy.

• 'I feel like I can dig up my child'The mother of Richard Thole, 5, who fell down a 140m-deep mine shaft in Boksburg at the weekend, is still hopeful that her child will be brought back to her, dead or alive. 

"We are dreading the eventuality of the likely outcome‚" said Masina.

The mayor said the Disaster and Emergency Management services and the Mine Rescue Services had done everything they could in the rescue operations but could not go any further.

• More agony for mother of mineshaft plunge boy as rescue efforts postponed againThe mother of five-year-old Richard Thole‚ who fell down a 140-meter-deep mineshaft in Boksburg‚ will have to endure another night of uncertainty and anguish after rescue attempts were again called off on Tuesday afternoon. 

CEO of Mine Rescue Services Christo de Klerk said: "It will not be possible to continue without endangering the life of any person."

- TMG Digital/TimesLIVE