Four miners were killed and five more feared buried after a shaft in a Zimbabwean gold mine collapsed, the miners federation said Saturday.

The accident occurred on Friday in Chegutu, about 120km west of the capital Harare, state television ZBC said, at the Bay Horse Mine.

“Four dead bodies have been retrieved so far and five are still trapped,” Henrietta Rushwaya, president of the Zimbabwe Miners Federation, told AFP.

She said that 21 people had been rescued from the collapsed mine.

Earlier reports from ZBC had suggested that as many as 18 people could be buried underground.

But Rushwaya said that “at the time of collapse, 13 people were pushed out, alive… and another eight were rescued alive.”

Earlier ZBC said that the bodies of those killed were “found underneath some rocks in a search operation being undertaken by government with the assistance of some artisanal miners.”

The southern African nation has vast reserves of platinum, diamonds, gold, coal and copper. Due to the floundering economy, illegal mining is rife and often takes place under dangerous conditions.

Accidents are common. In February 2019, 24 miners died when an abandoned pit flooded after torrential rains in central Zimbabwe.

News24