AKIPRESS.COM - The bodies of 24 illegal gold miners have been recovered from flooded tunnels in Zimbabwe after a dam wall collapsed following heavy rain, Sky News reports. 

Up to 70 may have been trapped in the mine and the search near Kadoma continues, the government said. It has declared a national disaster.

Eight people were rescued, all but one of whom have been discharged from hospital.

Henrietta Rushwaya, who leads the country's small-scale miners' association, said 23 of the bodies had been identified.

According to the government's deputy chief mining engineer, "it doesn't seem likely" that there are any other survivors.

The disaster happened in Battlefields - a small settlement 110 miles west of Harare that is rich in gold deposits and popular with illegal miners.

Friends and relatives have broken police lines in an attempt to identify their loved ones.