JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - Some 3,200 miners were trapped deep underground in a South African gold mine on Wednesday and a union spokesman said they could be suffocating.
The miners at the Elandsrand mine were caught about 2.2 km (1.4 miles) down after an electrical cable of a lift carrying workers to the surface snapped at around 0800 GMT on Wednesday, a spokeswoman for owners Harmony Gold said.
A National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) spokesman said the miners were trapped in a cramped space where temperatures could reach 30 to 40 degrees Celsius (86-104 Fahrenheit).
"We are very worried because ... they might be suffocating," NUM spokesman Lesiba Seshoka said. "There is no contact at the moment. That is our greatest worry."
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