Mine disaster in South Africa

[Filuwaúrdjan]

News just coming in; over three thousand miners are trapped underground in a gold mine in South Africa.

A Union official has said the following:

^{"We are, you know, losing hope because... from six o'clock in the morning up until now the miners might actually be suffocating"}

[minionofmidas]

3000!?

[Filuwaúrdjan]

3000!?

Yes

[Filuwaúrdjan]

The company that owns the mine (Harmony Gold) has said that rescuers are in contact with the miners.

[The Man From G.O.P.]

Three thousand.... That's quite a lot.

[Silent Hunter]

They're getting people out:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/7027122.stm

[opebo]

What I saw on the Australian news was that the lift was destroyed - essentially it fell down the shaft.  The mine spokeswoman claimed that the ventilation and water supply was all functioning normally.  She claimed that the big problem was figuring out how to resume lift service.

[afleitch]

I've got my fingers crossed in this one. It does appear to be an agonizing but ongoing removal of people from the mine. I don't know if and how supplies are getting down but I've heard the temperature is high, theres exhaustion, hunger and presumably dehydration.

[Jake]

Any updates on this one Al?

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

Apparently the rescue operation is a complete success, and it's expected all will be rescued with no deaths or serious injuries.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Any updates on this one Al?

I thought I posted one earlier (probably confused this place for somewhere else). But it's good news; they all got out

A row has broken out over the cause of the accident though.

[minionofmidas]

Yeah, they basically hauled people out the way they usually only haul goods out. Couldn't get more than 300 people an hour that way, though, so it took a while.