Search efforts for men trapped in a Pongola mine abandoned
Search efforts have been called off for at least five men who were trapped at a mine in Pongola, in northern KZN.
According to police the group is believed to have been taking part in illegal mining activity in the Bosveld mine. They have been trapped since Friday night and according to an anonymous source only 2 from the group made it out alive.
Newswatch has it on good record from a reliable source that those who died were killed during a suspected underground blast while 2 others who were separated from the group at the time survived.
We have also learned that when the two surviving men went to find out what happened they discovered that the rest of the men had been stuck under heavy rocks that had imploded on them.
They then called for helped and revealed to authorities that they had been there illegally. Rescue attempts were launched to reach the remaining men on Friday but were abandoned yesterday afternoon due to the instability of that section of the mine.
The surviving 2 men have been arrested and detained at the Pongola SAPS station for illegal mining.
Police confirmed that rescue operations have stopped.
(Photo: Gallo Images)