* Police open fire on striking miners – Reuters footage
* At least a dozen bodies seen lying on ground
* Platinum prices spike higher
* Lonmin shares slump to four-year low
(Adds police ministry comment in pars 7-8)
By John Mkhize
MARIKANA, South Africa, Aug 16 (Reuters) – South African
police opened fire on striking miners armed with machetes and
sticks at Lonmin’s Marikana platinum mine on
Thursday, killing at least a dozen men in scenes that evoked
comparisons with apartheid-era brutality.
In the incident, filmed by Reuters television, officers
opened up with automatic weapons on a group of men who emerged
from behind a vehicle and started loping towards police lines.
The volley of bullets threw up clouds of dust, which cleared
to reveal bodies lying on the ground.
President Jacob Zuma said he was “shocked and dismayed” at
what appeared to be one of the bloodiest police operations since
the end of white-minority rule in 1994 in Africa’s biggest
economy.
Continued…
