7 killed, 12 wounded over mine dispute in South Africa

The underground clash at a mine here has left seven miners dead and 12 others wounded, said police on Tuesday. As of Tuesday morning the rescue team have retrieved 7 bodies of the miners at the Brakpan North mine in Johannesburg, said police. On Sunday police were alerted that an underground clash erupted between the two groups of illegal miners at the Brakpan North mine. A total of 12 injured miners have been rescued by the relief workers, but some of them needed to be amputated with the fatal gunshot wounds. The underground rescue operation is still underway at the mine on Tuesday morning, and there is a possibility that the death number of the miners could rise. "The rescue people will go to shaft seven to check that we leave no bodies down there, because some families are still saying their members are still missing," said police. With South Africa being rich in natural mines, the mining sector has become one of the main drivers of the economic growth in the recent years. The South African mining trade union National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) general secretary Frans Baleni has recently appealed for the Department of the Mineral Resource to take action to contain the illegal mining, saying "the issue of illegal miners is of great concern to the NUM, we condemn it, especially with the continued loss of life."