Illegal miners rescued

17 February 2014 - 08:26 By AFP, Staff reporter
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LUCKY ESCAPE: Emergency workers help bring to the surface one of 11 illegal miners trapped in a mine in Benoni, east of Johannesburg yesterday.
LUCKY ESCAPE: Emergency workers help bring to the surface one of 11 illegal miners trapped in a mine in Benoni, east of Johannesburg yesterday.
Image: ALON SKUY

Eleven illegal miners have been rescued from an abandoned gold mine in Benoni, on the East Rand, in which around 200 men were feared trapped yesterday.

This is the second mining accident in as many weeks.

Rescuers used heavy-duty equipment to clear a way out for the men trapped in the Chinese-owned Gold One mine, emergency services said.

"We have rescued 11 so far. None of them has visible injuries but they are being assessed by the medics," Russel Meiring, of the emergency service ER24 said.

It was believed that there were more than 200 miners trapped inside the mine, 30 of them at a shallow level.

The 30 "have told us that underneath them there are 200 others," Werner Vermaak, an ER24 spokesman said.

But he could not independently confirm the figure of 200 and Benoni municipal officials could confirm only that 30 had been trapped.

Those rescued were arrested for illegal mining and trespassing, the police said.

"There's still [some] underground refusing to come out for fear of arrest," police spokesman Mack Mngomezulu said.

Municipal officials said the workers went underground on Saturday. The workings of an abandoned gold mine had been excavated illegally behind a cricket stadium.

The police suspect that some of the men had been underground for up 12 days.

They were unable to come to surface after boulders fell and blocked their way, municipal rescuers said.

But other reports suggested that one group of illegal miners had robbed another group underground and had then blocked off the entrance to the shaft.

Boulders blocking the entrance to the shaft were removed by heavy excavation equipment, clearing the way for rescuers. Food and water had earlier been lowered in by rope.

Police on patrol in the vicinity discovered the men trapped in the mine when told by a passer-by that he had heard people screaming for help from underground.

At least eight miners were killed nearly two weeks ago when an earth tremor sparked an underground blaze at a Harmony Gold mine west of Johannesburg.

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