South Africa police arrest 72 Gold Fields miners
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This file photo from Oct 2, 2012, shows striking miners from Gold Fields' KDC West mine who had been evicted from company housing occupying a hill near the mine in Carltonville, west of Johannesburg. On Friday night, as many as 600 miners staged a sit-in at Westonaria police station. -- PHOTO: REUTERS
JOHANNESBURG (REUTERS) - South African police fired stun grenades and rubber bullets to break up a sit-in by protesters at a police station over the weekend and arrested more than 70 miners from a nearby Gold Fields mine, police said.
As many as 600 miners from Gold Fields Kloof mines staged a sit-in at Westonaria police station, about 45km west of Johannesburg on Friday night, police said in a statement.
After failing to disperse the protest, police said they fired rubber bullets and stun grenades. The crowd responded by breaking windows and causing other damage at the station.
Police said they arrested 72 miners, one of whom was carrying a firearm.
