Death toll in Chakari mine shaft collapse rises to...

Death toll in Chakari mine shaft collapse rises to 9

Zim Now Writer

The death toll in the Bayhorse Mine shaft collapse has risen to nine with four missing while 21 survived.

The nine died after a shaft at Bayhorse Gold Mine in Chakari, Chegutu district, collapsed on Friday morning.

Sources said a joint search and rescue operation had brought four bodies to the surface, while efforts to uplift five other corpses were being hampered by soft ground and a rock boulder that was blocking the tunnel leading to where the miners lay dead.

Casualties are expected to go up as four miners are yet to be accounted for.

Sources also said that 21 of the trapped miners had either escaped to safety or rescued.

https://zimbabwenow.co.zw/articles/6481/6-dead-and-15-trapped-in-zim-gold-mine-collapse

Sources told this publication that 21 of the trapped individuals had by Friday night, either escaped to safety or rescued.

Earlier assertions that there were around 44 miners underground were later reviewed after it emerged that there were 34 people in the shaft when tragedy struck around 10am on Friday.

Mines and Mining Development Deputy Minister, Polite Kambamura visited the accident site yesterday Saturday and confirmed he was briefed that 34 employees had entered the gold mine when the shaft collapsed.

“There were about 34 people when the mine collapsed and there has been tremendous efforts from various stakeholders to search for bodies and rescue survivors,” said Kambamura.

He highlighted that the mission to comb the debris for bodies and survivors was hampered by the unstable ground, which continued to cave in.