Death toll rises to 87 as standoff between police and miners ends in South Africa The death toll in a monthslong standoff between police and miners trapped while working illegally underground at an abandoned gold mine in South Africa has risen to at least 87, police said Thursday as they wound down a rescue operation that has pulled more than 240 survivors out from deep underground.
National police spokesperson Athlenda Mathe said that 78 bodies were retrieved from the mine in an official rescue operation that began Monday, while another nine had been recovered previously.
Community groups have said they launched their own rescue attempts when authorities said last year they would not help the miners because they were “criminals.”.
Authorities now believe that nearly 2,000 miners were underground working illegally at the Buffelsfontein Gold Mine southwest of Johannesburg since August last year.
The mine is one of the deepest in South Africa and the miners were working up to 2.5 kilometers (1.5 miles) underground.
