Riot Police open fire on South African mining strike

Submitted by news on Fri, Aug 17, 2012 - 10:46am
South African riot police have opened fire on a group of striking mine workers armed with machetes and sticks, killing at least 12 men.

3000 miners were protesting at Marikana platinum mine, around 100 kilometres north-west of Johannesburg, over a union dispute when police opened fire with automatic weapons.

The police intervened in the situation after several days of union talks broke down. It is not yet known whether the police were fired upon first to cause the violent escalation.