Search for trapped miners

ZIMBABWEAN authorities are expected to start retrieving the bodies of more than 40 illegal gold miners yesterday after flooding in the shafts, state media reported.

The miners were trapped on Tuesday when interlinked shafts and tunnels at the two mines in Battlefields, 175km south of the capital Harare, were flooded after a dam wall collapsed due to heavy rains.

Some of the shafts were 100m deep and rescue teams from nearby mines and Civil Protection Unit were pumping water from shafts and tunnels, The Herald newspaper said.

The area is rich in gold deposits and popular with artisanal miners who use picks and shovels and generator-powered water pumps. At abandoned mines, miners usually sneak in at night and can disappear into shafts and tunnels for more than two days. |

EPA-EFE ANA MINERS sit around one of the shafts at the Cricket Mine in Battlefields, outside Kadoma, Zimbabwe. More than 40 illegal gold miners are trapped and feared dead after flooding in shafts which linked two mines. |