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11 rescued, 19 still trapped in SA gold mine
February 17, 2014, 5:16 am

A trapped illegal miner at a disused gold mine shaft near, Benoni, South Africa, is bought to the surface Sunday, Feb. 16, 2014 [AP]

A trapped illegal miner at a disused gold mine shaft near, Benoni, South Africa, is bought to the surface Sunday, Feb. 16, 2014 [AP]

Rescue operations are still underway in South Africa where 30 miners have been trapped since Saturday in an illegal gold mine.

11 miners have been rescued so far.

The miners had been trapped under debris in an abandoned gold shaft east of Johannesburg.

ER24 emergency services said those rescued were being checked by medical staff and then handed over to the police for questioning.

No deaths or injuries have been reported so far.

The miners are believed to have been digging a tunnel to access the gold deposit when reportedly a rival group used boulders to block their exit.

Disaster management and emergency officers, including the police are still at the scene.

South Africa’s gold mines are the deepest in the world and were ranked as some of the most dangerous during the apartheid era. And although work safety conditions have improved in recent years, 112 people died in the gold mines in 2012.

 

Source: Agencies