Hundreds are still trapped at the Stilfontein gold mine, a rights group said. Authorities tried to flush out the miners by depriving them of food and water.

In South Africa, authorities have retrieved at least 60 bodies from the Stilfontein gold mine following a siege aimed at curbing illegal mining. The operation, which has arrested survivors for illegal activities,

STILFONTEIN, South Africa (Reuters) - One hundred and eighteen illegal miners have been extracted from the Stilfontein mine in South Africa on Monday and Tuesday as part of a rescue operation, of which 36 were certified as dead, police said in a statement on Tuesday.

South African rescuers have pulled out 36 dead bodies and 82 survivors from a gold mine deep underground in two days of operations, police said on Tuesday, adding that the survivors would all face illegal mining and immigration charges.

The South African government has launched a rescue operation at an abandoned gold mine in the country’s North West province, where at least 109 men have died, a group representing the miners said, after local authorities cut off vital supplies in a dramatic bid to crack down on the country’s illegal mining trade.

Rescued miners are seen as they are processed by police after being rescued at the mine shaft where rescue operations are ongoing as attempts are made to rescue illegal miners who have been underground for months,

Rescuers are sending a cage-like structure into one of South Africa’s deepest mines in an attempt to bring out survivors among hundreds of illegal miners trapped for months in an abandoned shaft