A 74-year-old miner was last evening being treated for severe burns to his upper torso and face following a brazen attack by bandits in the Mahdia area in Region 8 on Friday.
Reports are that Felix Nichols, who operates a mining operation in the Tiger Creek area on the outskirts of Mahdia, was alone at his mining camp on Friday morning when he was attacked by two men.
A relative told this newspaper yesterday at the Woodlands Hospital in the city where Nichols is receiving treatment that the elderly man was alone at the camp when he was approached by two men who said they were seeking employment. She said Nichols related that he informed the men that the operation was closed and that he could not offer the men any employment.
She said one of the men then “vice he around the neck and they tie he up like guana”. She said during the attack one of the men sprayed the contents of a “Baygon tin” on the hapless man and set him alight. She said she could not say if the men took anything from the camp.
According to a resident at Mahdia, the elderly man related that he shouted out in a desperate attempt to get help and he was subsequently assisted by the mining operation’s general manager who was working some distance away from the camp.
She said Nichols was rushed to the Mahdia District Hospital where he received treatment for his injuries. The woman related that the man’s head, his face and chest were severely burnt and she described him as, “strong because he was able to live through that ordeal and relate to us at the hospital what they did to him”.
Nichols was transferred to the city by mini-bus on Saturday and he was immediately taken to the Woodlands Hospital for treatment. His condition is said to be stable.
It is unclear if anyone was arrested in relation to the incident but Mahdia residents told this newspaper yesterday that a report was made at the police station in the area.
