SOUTH AFRICAN police were searching for the killers of eight gold miners today. 

The miners were found shot dead at an illegal shaft on the eastern outskirts of Johannesburg at the weekend.

Two of the bodies were found underground. Police Lieutenant Colonel Lungelo Dlamini said all eight were shot in the upper body and have not yet been identified. The motive for the killings is as yet unknown.

Illegal mining is common in the area around Johannesburg, which is pockmarked with old shafts, a testament to the city’s century-old history of gold mining.

While many mines are no longer commercially viable, they still contain enough residual deposits to attract scores of the city’s unemployed workers and even some from much further afield.

Workers brave unsafe conditions below ground amid reports of the involvement of organised crime and clashes between rival groups seeking to mine the abandoned shafts.