All 955 gold miners trapped underground for more than a day in South Africa after a power cut were rescued unharmed yesterday, to the relief of waiting relatives.
"Everybody's out," mine spokesman James Wellsted told AFP, adding that there were no deaths or serious injuries reported.
There were "cases of dehydration and high blood pressure but nothing serious", he said.
The miners were stuck in the Beatrix gold mine, in the small town of Theunissen near the city of Welkom, for around 30 hours after a massive power outage caused by a storm prevented lifts from bringing workers on the night shift to the surface. After several hours engineers were able to restore power, allowing the hoist to bring up the miners -- who had been trapped since Wednesday evening -- in batches.
Despite the rescue, the accident at Beatrix mine has reignited safety concerns at South African mines.
