TV reporter dies at gold mine
VETERAN Nine Network reporter Richard Carleton has died after suffering a suspected heart attack at Tasmania's Beaconsfield Gold Mine today, Tasmanian police say.
"He has died," Tasmanian police constable Phil Pike told AAP.
Nine presenter Mike Munro confirmed the death during a televised news update.
"He was given treatment on the spot and taken to hospital," a visibly shaken Munro said.
"He was taken to hospital, as you can see, where doctors have only just pronounced him dead.
"Our friend and colleague, Richard Carleton, from 60 Minutes, dead."
Witnesses said Carleton went red in the face after asking a question at the press conference and walked a short distance before collapsing.
Tasmanian government adviser Shaun Rigby said he saw Carleton collapse soon after asking a question at a press conference about the mine rescue. "I saw him, and I said 'he's down' and we rushed over there pretty much straight away," Mr Rigby told reporters.
He said a radio journalist began CPR while Mr Rigby called an ambulance and sent someone to the mine site to get medical experts working with the trapped miners.
Among them was Dr Andrew Hughes, the director the Tasmanian Medical Retrieval Service, who has been working closely with the trapped miners.
Dr Hughes was the main doctor who worked on Carleton before was taken away in an ambulance, Mr Rigby said.
He said people had been traumatised by the veteran reporter's death.
"There's people in tears, there's people in shock. It's been horrible – it's just horrible," Mr Rigby said.
He said he had tried to offer Carleton some dignity as he lay on the ground.
"I basically told people to clear the area, get some blankets. Everyone deserves a bit of dignity especially when lying on your back in that situation with 30 cameras (around)," Mr Rigby said.
"People from Nine, Seven, all kinds of people from all kinds of networks helped out.
"And we took them in there (to the mine's media centre) sat them down and had a coffee."
Minutes before he collapsed, Carleton asked Beaconsfield Mine Manager Matthew Gill about the safety history of the mine:
"On 26th October last year, not 10 metres from where these men are now entombed, you had a 400-tonne rock fall. Why is it, is it the strength of the seam, or the wealth of the seam, that you continue to send men into work in such a dangerous environment?"
Carleton, who reports for the network's flagship 60 Minutes program, has a history of heart problems.
Carleton has experienced a number of health scares, the first in 1988 when he underwent a heart bypass and in 2003 when he suffered a heart attack.
In 2005 he was diagnosed with prostate cancer.
One local resident who watched as people rushed to help Carleton expressed disbelief.
"Gold help us," the woman said.
"It's like a nightmare."
Prior to Carleton's collapse, children had gathered to collect autographs from some of the high-profile television personalities covering the mine drama.
One little girl's mother said that Carleton wrote on her daughter's piece of paper: "Have a healthy life".
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