A desperate rescue mission is underway for two people trapped underground after a mine collapsed.
Emergency services are responding to reports of two people trapped inside the Ballarat Gold Mine at Mount Clear, Ballarat, after it collapsed about 4:50pm on Wednesday.
Fire Rescue Victoria (FRV) and the Country Fire Authority have both sent ‘resources’ to the scene, a FRV spokesperson told Daily Mail Australia.
Ambulance Victoria have also dispatched paramedics and an air ambulance to the mine collapse.
‘The situation is developing and further information will be provided when available,’ a statement from Victoria Police reads.
Emergency services are desperately trying to save two people trapped underground after the gold mine at the Ballarat Gold Mine (pictured) collapsed on Wednesday afternoon
The condition of those trapped in the mine is unknown, however a convoy of emergency services vehicles have been seen rushing to the site.
Victorian Premier, Jacinta Allen, took to X to say she was ‘thinking of every worker and every family who is impacted by the Ballarat mine incident’.
‘Tonight will be a long night for them and for the entire Ballarat community.’
A WorkSafe Victoria spokesperson told Daily Mail Australia that the regulator is aware of the collapse and that ‘inspectors and a technical specialist are responding’.
The bushland surrounding Ballarat Gold Mine has been extensively combed over by police and volunteers in the search for missing mother, Samantha Murphy.
The 51-year-old vanished without a trace after she left her home at Eureka Street in Ballarat East at about 7am on February 4 for a run in Woowookrung Regional Park.
Mobile phone records show Ms Murphy had arrived in Mount Clear about an hour later, where police allege she was murdered by 22-year-old Patrick Stephenson.
Police warned those involved in searching for Ms Murphy to be weary of the hundreds of abandoned mine shafts in the area, many of which have been left open.
Despite the massive search, the mother-of-three’s remains are yet to be located.
The network of mine shafts that make up the Ballarat Gold Mine have been operational since the 1850s, with some of the original shafts still in use.
The bushland surrounding the mine had been extensively combed over by police and volunteers this past month in the search for missing mother, Samantha Murphy (pictured)
Although the condition of those trapped in the mine are unknown, convoys of emergency service vehicles have been seen entering the site (pictured, police at the scene)
A cave-in at the site trapped 27 miners about a kilometre underground on November 12, 2007.
All of the miners were safely retrieved after being winched to the surface through a ventilation shaft about 8am.
On Anzac Day the year prior, Tasmanian miners Todd Russell and Brant Webb were trapped in a small cage 925 metres underground for two weeks after a rock-fall at the Beaconsfield gold mine, northwest of Launceston.
While Mr Russell and Mr Webb triumphantly walked free from the mine, their colleague Larry Knight had died during the initial collapse.
They were both able to join mourners at their colleague’s funeral – which had been delayed until they were freed – on May 9.
