Bodies brought to the surface, few remain missing
The rescue had to be halted due to excessive smoke in the mine shafts.
Nine bodies still unaccounted for from the Gloria section at Koornforntein Mine, luckily 13 bodies were recovered.
On Friday, February 22, 13 bodies were brought to the surface by the Disaster Mine Rescue Team that is involved in a rescue mission.
These are bodies of the 22 people who on Sunday, February 3, went into a mine shaft where they allegedly intended to steal copper cables.
According to information by the mine management, as they work as a collective with police, they indicated that there was a gas explosion on Monday, February 4 resulting in those people being trapped.
Another group forced their way into the mine apparently to rescue the trapped people, however they suffered the same fate with only two people managing to escape and had to be rushed to hospital for medical attention, where one passed on later on the same day.
The area was declared a crime scene since and had to be cordoned off due to the volatility of the situation.
All role-players were called to the scene, including the Disaster Mine Rescue Team.
Soon thereafter, another four bodies were brought to the surface; today’s retrieval brings the total number of bodies brought to the surface to 18 thus far.
Retrieval efforts to bring up all remaining bodies to the surface was extended until Monday, February 25 as the rescue had to be halted due to excessive smoke in the mine shafts.
On Monday the teams gathered at the mine once again and the search started, but no bodies were found and the search continued again on Tuesday, February 26.
