SOUTH AFRICA: ORKNEY: GOLD MINE ACCIDENT UPDATE

(11 May 1995) English/Nat

Rescue workers have started the grim task of lifting the bodies of at least 100 men killed in a gold mine accident in South Africa.

They died on Wednesday when a locomotive plunged onto an elevator cage carrying workers on the night shift at the mine in Orkney.

Some of the dead are thought to be from neighbouring countries, including Mozambique.

Bodies are being brought up from the mine shaft in Orkney, where some 100 gold miners plunged to their deaths after a train fell on top of their elevator.

Miners watched in shock as rescue workers carried mangled bodies and pieces of bodies wrapped in wool blankets out of the mine.

Witnesses at the scene said survivors seemed impossible, since the two-floor lift fell 1.4 miles (2 kms) below the surface.

The accident at the mine happened at the end of the night shift when workers piled into the elevator for the long ride to the surface.

The elevator cable snapped and the cage fell to the bottom of the
shaft - 2-thousand-3-hundred meters below the surface - where it was squashed to half its normal size by the weight of the locomotive.

SOUNDBITE:
"These two vehicles plunging down the shaft caught up with the cage, hit it with such intensity that the rope detached from the cage and the cage, fully loaded fell some 450 meters down the shaft to the bottom."

SUPERCAPTION: Dick Fisher, Regional general manager

President Nelson Mandela expressed shock at the accident.

SOUNDBITE:
"Apart from regretting the incident, I think we should suspend any firm comment until all the facts have been fully put before us."

SUPERCAPTION: Nelson Mandela, South African President

Union leaders called for an independent investigation, including foreign experts, to determine the cause.

SOUNDBITE:
The pointers already are very clear that there was gross negligence...It is a requirement that when a shift is hoisted there must be no loco in the shaft area."

SUPERCAPTION: Mantege Kwete, National Union of Mineworkers

Officials are saying it looks like human error caused the accident since the locomotive went through a safety barrier.

South Africa is the leading gold producer and has some of the deepest mines in the world.

Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork
Twitter:   / ap_archive  
Facebook:   / aparchives   ​​
Instagram:   / apnews  


You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/you...