A man has been pulled alive out of a Zambian mine nearly a week after dozens of informal miners were trapped under landslides caused by heavy rain, rescuers said Wednesday.
A statement by Zambia’s Disaster Management and Mitigation Unit said the 49-year-old survivor was rescued on Tuesday night, and that he told rescuers that he had been struggling for five days to find a way out of one of the collapsed tunnels at the open-pit copper mine near the city of Chingola, around 400 kilometres (250 miles) north of the capital, Lusaka.
A body was also recovered a few hours after the miner’s rescue but was yet to be identified, the statement added.
Zambian authorities have differed on exactly how many miners they believe were trapped when tunnels they were digging late Thursday collapsed on them. Government officials have said there were more than 30 miners trapped underground, while the District Commissioner of the area said there were at least 36.
Zambia mines minister Paul Kabuswe said 25 families in the region have come forward to report missing relatives.
Zambian President Hakainde Hichilema visited the site of the disaster on Tuesday and said he hoped that there were survivors. A rescuer said earlier in the week that they had heard multiple voices coming from under the rubble at one of the tunnel sites.
Rescuers say they have been working constantly since last Friday to clear debris and pump water out of the area where the tunnels are.