{"id":52647,"date":"2025-01-16T08:31:19","date_gmt":"2025-01-16T08:31:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/246-rescued-78-bodies-recovered-in-south-african-illegal-mining-tragedy\/"},"modified":"2025-01-16T08:33:02","modified_gmt":"2025-01-16T08:33:02","slug":"246-rescued-78-bodies-recovered-in-south-african-illegal-mining-tragedy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/246-rescued-78-bodies-recovered-in-south-african-illegal-mining-tragedy\/","title":{"rendered":"246 rescued, 78 bodies recovered in South African illegal mining tragedy"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The operation to rescue miners trapped underground, which began on Monday, was confirmed by the South African Police Service (SAPS) in a statement issued Wednesday evening.<\/p>\n<p>All 246 survivors were arrested after being brought to the surface. <\/p>\n<p>Police spokesperson Athlenda Mathe told Xinhua that the operation might not yet be over, despite volunteers suggesting there are no more survivors or bodies underground.<\/p>\n<p>The Mine Rescue Service plans to send equipment underground Thursday to confirm the situation. Updates from SAPS are expected following this assessment.<\/p>\n<p>Illegal mining has been a persistent issue at Stilfontein since August 2024, with over 1,500 miners arrested in previous incidents. <\/p>\n<p>Many of these miners are foreign nationals, often working in abandoned mines to extract gold.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"spip-document spip-document-80337\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/jpg\/okay_-3.jpg\" alt=\"Rescuers use a mobile rescue winder during a rescue operation at an abandoned gold mine in Stilfontein, North West Province, South Africa, on Jan. 13, 2025. (Photo by Shiraaz Mohamed\/Xinhua)\" \/><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>South African authorities have rescued 246 illegal miners and recovered 78 bodies during a three-day operation at an abandoned gold mine in Stilfontein, North West Province.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":62,"featured_media":2000080336,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[75],"byline":[170],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-52647","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-homenews","byline-igihe"],"bylines":[{"id":170,"name":"IGIHE","slug":"igihe","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":8}],"contributors":[{"id":170,"name":"IGIHE","slug":"igihe","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":8}],"featured_image":{"id":2000080336,"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/okay_-3.jpg","alt":"","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","width":0,"height":0,"sizes":{"thumbnail":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/okay_-3.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"medium":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/okay_-3.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"medium_large":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/okay_-3.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"large":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/okay_-3.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"full":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/okay_-3.jpg","width":0,"height":0}}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52647","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/62"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=52647"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52647\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2000080336"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=52647"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=52647"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=52647"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=52647"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=52647"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}