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Police are investigating the death of 31 people in a gold mine in South Africa which has been closed for around 30 years.
- It's believed three bodies have been retrieved by other miners
- The miners are suspected to be illegal workers from Lesotho
- The mine was abandoned in the early 90s
It's suspected those found were illegal miners from the neighbouring country of Lesotho which reported the incident to South African authorities.
While the country's energy department has only now released the news, the deaths happened a month ago, on May 18.
It is unclear when Lesotho authorities were made aware.
It's believed the miners died in an explosion in a ventilation shaft of the Virginia Mine in Welkom City.
In a statement released on Twitter, South Africa's Department of Mineral Resources and Energy (DMRE) described the incident as a "unique and strange situation" which they were only made aware of recently.
Lesotho's foreign ministry recently provided some information to the South African authorities, the department said.
An investigation into the incident, with the help of the previous owner of the mine, determined methane levels were very high in the ventilation shaft.
"As such, it is currently too risky to dispatch a search team to the shaft," DMRE said.
"However, we are considering various options to speedily deal with the situation."
It has been reported that three bodies have been retrieved and brought to the surface by other miners.
The previous owner of the mine, a company called Harmony Gold HARJ J said it viewed the accident as a criminal matter.
It has handed the matter over to South African police for further investigation.
"Harmony is working with the DMRE to provide direction on the next steps," spokesperson Sihle Maake said.
Methane is a highly explosive greenhouse gas often found in underground mines and poses serious safety and health threats to mine workers.
Illegal prospecting is rife in South Africa's old gold-mining areas, where miners go into closed and often dangerous shafts to dig for any deposits left behind.
Fatal incidents involving illegal miners are common and sometimes go unreported because survivors are afraid of being arrested when they inform authorities.
In November, South African police discovered the bodies of 21 illegal miners at a mine in use in Krugersdorp, a town west of Johannesburg.
Authorities said they believed the bodies had been moved to the active mine from a different disused mine by other illegal miners so they could be discovered.
Reuters/AP