South African prosecutors have provisionally dropped murder charges against 270 miners whose colleagues were shot dead by police.
"The murder charge against the current 270 suspects, which was provisional anyway, will be formally withdrawn provisionally in court on their next court appearance," acting national director of prosecutions Nomgcobo Jiba told a news conference on Sunday.
Thursday's decision to charge the miners over the August 16 killings during a wildcat strike at the Lonmin platinum mine, in what was the worst police violence since the end of apartheid, had triggered outrage.
The workers have been held in custody since they were arrested on the day of the shooting at Lonmin's mine in Marikana, northwest of Johannesburg.
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