Nigeria miners struggled to breathe, screamed for help from cell before 37 died: survivors

Survivors of a Nigerian disaster that saw 37 suspected illegal gold miners die while in the custody of a paramilitary civil defence group recounted their panic on Friday as they struggled to breathe inside the cell.

"We were jam-packed in the cell, no ventilation for us to breathe well," Dauda Shehu told journalists at a central Nigerian hospital. "All of a sudden we realised that we could not breathe and we were all scampering for where to get fresh air, we even appealed to them several times, banged the cell door, but they refused to answer us."