The miners are suspected to have died of starvation and dehydration, although no causes of death have been released.

South African rescuers ended their attempts on Thursday to find anyone left in an illegal gold mine where at least 78 people died during a police siege, as a local volunteer described the horror of extracting their bodies from deep underground.

STORY: South African rescuers ended their attempts on Thursday to find anyone left in an illegal gold mine near the town of Stilfontein.At least 78 people died during a police siege there.Police had encircled the mine and cut off food and water supplies since August,

It will be a "mammoth task" to identify the bodies brought up from a disused mineshaft in South Africa this week, a police spokesperson says. Seventy-eight corpses, along with more than 240 illegal miners,

STILFONTEIN, South Africa (Reuters) - South African rescuers were making final efforts on Thursday to ascertain whether anyone was left in an illegal gold mine deep underground where at least 78 people died during a police siege, in what a labour union called a state-sponsored massacre.

Police say the death toll in a monthslong standoff between authorities and miners trapped while working illegally underground at an abandoned gold mine in South Africa has risen to at least 87

South African police lowered a camera down more than a mile (1.5 km) underground into an illegal gold mine on Thursday to ascertain if any survivors or corpses were still there after a months-long siege by authorities in which at least 78 miners died.

South African police ended a rescue operation at an abandoned gold mine on Wednesday and said they believe they have brought out all the survivors and retrieved all the bodies.