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Thousands trapped in South African gold mine

04/10/2007

Rescue teams are battling to save more than 2,000 miners trapped a mile and a half underground in a South African goldmine.

Some 3,200 workers had been trapped at Elandsrand mine at Carletonville, 50 miles west of Johannesburg, after a steel pipe fell and severed electric cables, damaging the mine's lift shaft.

However, the damage was not noticed until late on Wednesday, when day shift workers attempted to surface.

Around 1,000 have already been hoisted to safety, but 2,000 remain underground, having been trapped for over 20 hours.

Leshiba Seshoka, a spokesman for the miners' union, told national press agency SAPA that temperatures in the mine could reach 40C.

"We are very worried because . . . they might be suffocating," he commented.

Though there has been no collapse or cave-in, Mr Seshoka told the Associated Press news agency that many miners had been concerned about the level of safety in the mine.

"Our guys there tell us that they have raised concerns about the whole issue of maintenance of shafts with the mine, but they have not been attended to," he said.

Only 300 people can be brought to the surface at a time, Harmony Gold Mining - owners of the mine - confirmed.