In short:
Rescuers have hoisted several dead bodies from an abandoned South African gold mine amid claims that hundreds are still underground and many people have died.
It comes after a weeks-long saga where authorities have been accused of trying to force the miners to surface by stopping food and water supplies.
It is not clear how many people are in the shaft but police say the figure is probably in the hundreds.
Rescuers have hoisted several dead bodies from an abandoned South African gold mine amid claims that hundreds are still underground and many people have died.
At least 100 men mining illegally in the abandoned gold mine have been trapped deep underground for months while police tried to get them out, a group representing the miners said on Monday.
The operation on Monday follows a weeks-long saga at the abandoned shaft where authorities have been accused of trying to force the miners to surface by stopping food and water supplies lowered to them by the surrounding community.
It is not clear how many people are in the shaft.
There were claims in November last year that up to 4,000 people were underground but police have said the figure was probably in the hundreds.
Bodies retrieved, fears death toll will rise
The Department of Mineral Resources and Energy spokesperson Makhosonke Buthelezi said bodies had been retrieved from the mine but said no further details could be divulged ahead of an official report.
Footage verified by Reuters showed dozens of dead bodies and emaciated men in the mine.
Volunteer rescue workers have been helping the miners. (AP: Jerome Delay)
The two videos were obtained by South African miners' rights group Mining Affected Communities United in Action (MACUA) on Monday.
They received them from miners emerging from the gold mine in North West Province on January 10 when a pulley was restored to the bottom of the cavern.
Police said they blocked miners' supplies of food and water to force them out and arrest them for illegally entering the abandoned mine in search of leftover gold — part of a crackdown on illegal mining that has plagued South Africa for decades.
Lawyers for Human Rights Johannesburg head Jessica Lawrence said the miners were in "incredibly distressed circumstances".
"We know some of the miners are in incredibly critical conditions and those are the miners that are being selected to be rescued first, now that the formal state rescue operations have commenced."
Ms Lawrence said the community and human rights lawyers had been calling on the state to rescue the miners for months.
"The obligation to rescue the miners rests squarely on the state because it is the state that has created this crisis through its operations," she said.
Claims of hundreds of miners still underground
South African Police Service (SAPS) officers were seen at the rescue operation to retrieve the illegal miners. (AFP: Christian Velcich )
MACUA spokesperson Magnificent Mndebele said there are more than 400 miners still waiting to be rescued two months after a stand-off with South African police.
Mr Mndebele said someone had destroyed a pulley system which was used for lowering supplies to the miners which enabled them to get out, but MACUA restored it on January 9.
"The shaft is 2 kilometres deep. It's impossible for people to climb up," he said.
Authorities surround starving miners
Photo shows A woman wearing a black beanie holds up a sign reading: "Free our brothers" at a protest near an abandoned goldmine.
Mr Buthelezi confirmed that South African authorities were at the mine with machinery, preparing for a planned rescue this week.
"The pulley system was put in place by community members, but it has been replaced with machinery used by mine rescue services," he said.
"The mine rescue services were contracted by the department Department of Mineral Resources and Energy."
ABC/wires
