Rescue teams in South Africa who are trying to reach two injured miners trapped deep below ground at a gold mine, say their efforts have suffered a new setback.

Further rock falls have blocked the rescue tunnels hacked through hundreds-of-tons of debris which were used early today to bring nine miners out alive.

Rescue workers at the mine at Orkney in North-West province have had no contact with the two injured miners since they became trapped in a shaft on Monday.

A spokeswoman for the owners, African Rainbow Minerals, said it had not been possible to get medication, water or food to them. Last year more than three-hundred miners were killed in South African gold mines, many of them migrant workers from other African countries.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service