The operation to rescue illegal gold
miners trapped in an abandoned mine in South Africa has been halted after about 200 of them indicated they’d rather stay
underground for fear of being arrested.
Just 11 miners had been rescued from the shaft near Johannesburg before the rescue operations
ground to a halt overnight.
Officials said a full rescue operation will not restart unless the
miners request it. Werner Vermaak of ER24 told the BBC the mine site would be guarded overnight by a private security.company, who can call for help if the miners change their minds. They could also prevent unauthorised rescue attempts.
Mr Vermaak said the miners would not be denied help if they called for it.”They will be offered rescue
should they decide to come out,” he said, adding “but they will
be arrested should they come to the surface again,” he said.
Lacking ladders or ropes, they will not be able to leave the
mine without help, he added.
No comments:
Post a Comment