More than 20 artisanal miners are trapped underground after a shaft collapsed on Wednesday night at a disused gold mine about 200km southwest of the capital Harare, government officials said on Thursday.
Head of the Civil Protection Unit in Kwekwe district Fortune Mpungu told journalists that the accident occurred when a huge rock fell on a group of artisanal miners that was working in the shaft.
He could not give the exact number of trapped illegal miners, saying the exact figures and number of casualties would only be determined once rescuers reach the miners.
The mine was abandoned by its former owners in 2007 after it was condemned as unsafe by the Ministry of Mines.
Artisanal miners have been illegally mining gold ore since then.
JN/APA