Fourteen clandestine miners were killed and eight seriously hurt after a rockfall in a disused mine in South Africa where they were working, police said Tuesday.
There were no details yet of the miners, including their nationalities, as officials were still headed to the site, provincial police spokeswoman Colonel Adele Myburgh told AFP.
“Fourteen illegal miners dead at disused mine,” a police statement said. Another eight miners were seriously injured, Myburgh told AFP.
The disaster was near the town of Rustenburg, about 100 kilometres (60 miles) northwest of Johannesburg.
Thousands of unregistered miners known as “zama zamas” operate in South Africa, scavenging abandoned mines for gold and other minerals in arduous and often perilous conditions. Related News Madugu hints at rotation after Nnadozie errors Niger Assembly alerts FG over gold mining health risks Falcons have no excuse, says Ucheibe
