Johannesburg, June 16, (dpa/GNA) – Police in South Africa are investigating the deaths of 20 men whose bodies were found near a disused gold mine.
“All the deceased are suspected to be illegal miners commonly known as ‘zama zamas’ operating in obsolete shafts in Orkney and Stilfontein,” the police said in a statement on Wednesday.
According to the statement, the bodies, some of which were badly decomposed, were found outside a mine shaft and near the railway tracks in Orkney, about 180 kilometres south-west of Johannesburg.
The bodies, wrapped in white plastic, were found to have been severely burnt. An autopsy will be carried out, the statement added.
GNA