Authorities face possible investigation into their initial refusal to help miners and instead 'smoke them out' by cutting off food supplies

At least 87 miners are dead, and dozens more bodies may remain underground—the brutal outcome of a protracted dispute at an abandoned gold mine in South Africa. The issue revolves around the practice of illegal miners—known as zama zamas—venturing down into abandoned mines to look for gold.

The prospectors were trapped underground for months as police, on orders from South Africa’s government, attempted to starve them out.

Residents desperately waiting for news of family members gathered at the mine, some holding placards criticizing authorities for their response.

Rescuers continued retrieving bodies Wednesday from an abandoned South African gold mine with hundreds more still believed to be underground, many of them dead and others too weak to come out on their own.

South African rescuers have so far pulled 78 bodies and rescued 166 people from the Stilfontein gold mine over three days of operations, police spokesperson Athlenda Mathe told reporters at the scene on Wednesday.