[FOCHVILLE] Worker dies as trench collapses

A man in his 30s has died while he was allegedly laying pipe in the bottom of a trench that collapsed on top of him alongside Danie Theron Street in Fochville this afternoon.

ER24 paramedics arrived on scene at 15:41 along with SAPS and the Fochville Fire Department. A digger was used in an attempt to dig him out, but ultimately a sniffer dog from the SAPS K9 unit in Benoni was needed to detect the body of the man which had been trapped under about 9 tons of sand for up to 5 hours.

Extracted at 20:10, the man unfortunately showed no signs of life and was declared dead on the scene. The exact circumstances surrounding this incident are unknown to ER24, but as stated, the South African Police Services were on the scene for further investigation.