South African police open fire on striking Lonmin miners - Rough Cuts

Reuters01:41 - Public
(Warning: Graphic Content)

South African police open fire on striking miners armed with machetes and sticks at Lonmin's Marikana platinum mine, killing at least a dozen men in the deadliest episode of a week of union violence.

The SAPA domestic news agency says one of its reporters counted 18 bodies after the shooting near a squatter camp close to the mine, which occurred when police laying out barricades of barbed wire were outflanked by some of an estimated 3,000 miners massed on a rocky outcrop near the mine, northwest of Johannesburg.