Four miners have died following an earlier earthquake that caused a cave-in at a South African gold mine.
The miners were among 10 rescued from Sibanye-Stillwater’s Masakhane mine, west of Johannesburg, after the incident on Thursday.
According to the company, three miners are still trapped underground, two of whom are still unaccounted for.
South Africa is a leading gold producer, but the industry has often been accused of a poor safety record.
This is the second large-scale incident at mines controlled by Sibanye-Stillwater in recent months.
Back in February, 955 miners became trapped underground for more than 24 hours after a storm knocked out the power, and the back-up generators failed to work.
On that occasion, no-one died. But not long afterwards, two of the company’s employees were killed at a different mine, news agency AFP reports.
This latest incident took place after “the epicentre [of the quake struck] very close to where the miners were working,” Sibanye-Stillwater spokesman James Wellsted told AFP.
South Africa’s largest trade union, the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu), has criticised the company, saying in a statement it was “alarmed by the deteriorating and poor safety record of Sibanye-Stillwater”.
