TOLL SET TO RISE IN MINING TRAGEDY

SEARCHERS have recovered 24 bodies from a mine in Zimbabwe that was flooded after heavy rains, trapping dozens of subsistence miners underground.

Henrietta Rushwaya, leader of the country’s small-scale miners’ association, said 23 of the bodies had been identified since the disaster last Tuesday near Kadoma, 140km southwest of the capital Harare.

Eight people were rescued from the flooded tunnels, and all but one were discharged from hospital after treatment.

The Government said up to 70 gold miners might have been trapped after a dam wall collapsed and water gushed into tunnels.

Large groups of people using picks, shovels and hoes are commonly seen prospecting in Zimbabwe’s mineralrich fields.