Dozens scramble to safety but five missing after shaft collapses at gold mine

Dozens of miners were trapped underground and five are still missing following the collapse of a gold mine in eastern South Africa. They were caught when the so-called lamp room at the main entrance at Makonjwaan Gold Mine in Barberton cave in. Most of the 87 miners were rescued or made it to the surface via ventilation shafts. None was reported to be seriously hurt. Meanwhile, work was beginning to stabilise a sink hole that opened up at the mine, which is in Mpumalanga province, about 225 miles east of Johannesburg.

Mine rescue services are still busy on scene to rescue the remaining miners underground

Emergency services group ER24

Mike Begg, operations director at the mine, said the lamp room at the main entrance - the last stop where workers receive lamps and safety packs before being lowered deeper into the ground - had collapsed. "We have sent some of our own staff underground to try and come in from behind that area to see whether there are any survivors from that building who may have been able to crawl out and into one or two of the old tunnels,” he added. Five people who were unaccounted for were in the building at the time and Mr Begg said: “Those are the only people I’m afraid for.”

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