KAHAMA , Tanzania, Nov. 17 (UPI) — Five miners, trapped underground in a Tanzanian gold mine for 41 days, were rescued and are recovering in a hospital.
The miners were part of a party of six who were searching for a group of 11miners trapped since Oct. 5 in a small mine at the Nyagalata mining site in northwestern Tanzania. One of the six did not survive. His body was brought up with the survivors from 300 feet below ground.
“We survived by eating cockroaches, frogs and other insects as well as drinking dirty water that seeped in from above,” rescued miner Chacha Wambura told Tanzania’s state-run television channel.
Efforts to find the 11 miners who were originally trapped ended last month, but workers nearby claimed they heard faint cries, and a rescue attempt was begun anew Friday. The situation was clouded Monday when Justus Kamugisha of the Shinyanga regional police said the men rescued were part of the group originally trapped. He later said that the 11 men trapped on Oct. 5, and one other person who was searching for them, remain in the mine and are presumed dead.
The mine is one of many in the remote region that are operated without modern equipment or adherence to mining safety standards. The six men were trapped in a chamber inside the mine after a shaft collapsed, a government spokesman said.
