Earthquake in South Africa: Magnitude 5.3 Quake Felt in Johannesburg, Pretoria; 1 Dead
A magnitude 5.3 earthquake hit the South African mining town of Orkney on Tuesday, killing one man when the wall of an unused building fell on top of him, according to a BBC report.
Shaking was felt in Johannesburg and the country's capital of Pretoria, and even as far away as neighboring Botswana and Mozambique. In Orkney, 17 miners were caught when the mines in which they were working collapsed.
Those miners sustained minor injuries, but the areas have been deemed safe and without further casualties, The Associated Press reported.
Paramedics reported that miners had been pulled from all 11 shafts in which they were trapped and that no one remains underground.
"The roof fell on them, but they haven't got serious injuries," a hospital receptionist said of the hurt miners.
News reports say that the man who was killed by the earthquake was 31 years old, but his name has not been released.
South Africa is no stranger to small earthquakes and, as a mining hub, the injuries that can go along with them. But Tuesday's magnitude 5.3 quake was the strongest in the country in many years. The strongest earthquake on record was a magnitude 6.3 tremor that hit in 1969.
South Africa has its history of tremors mostly because of its famous gold mines, which are among the deepest in the world.
Officials at some of South Africa's biggest mining firms, AngloGold Ashanti, Harmony Gold, Gold Fields and Sibanye Gold, said they had felt the earthquake in their offices but had so far received no reports of anything negative from their mines.
Lindy Sirayi, a guesthouse owner in Orkney, told reporters that the quake broke glassware and cracked walls and that dogs started barking during the minute-long quake. Aftershocks were felt, but the tremor wasn't strong enough to knock out the power, Sirayi said.
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