Rescuers pull six more bodies from the South African mine

Six more bodies have been pulled from a South African mine as efforts continue for a second day to find scores of illegal miners still believed to be at least 2km (1.2 miles) below. help ground, the national umbrella organization for NGOs, Sanco, told the BBC.

Eight people emerged alive on Tuesday adding to the 26 rescued on Monday after being hoisted up the old mine shaft in a cage operated by a crane on the surface. Nine bodies were recovered on Monday.

The men have been underground since a police operation aimed at illegal mining began last year across the country.

Last week a court ordered the government to carry out a long-delayed rescue operation.

This story contains a video that may be distressing to some people.

Last year, arguing that the miners had deliberately entered the shaft in Stilfontein without permission, the authorities took a hard line, blocking the supply of food and water.

In November, one government minister said: “We're going to smoke them out.”

More than 100 illegal miners, known locally as “zama zamas”, have reportedly died underground since the crackdown at the mine about 145km (90 miles) southwest of Johannesburg .

The authorities, however, have not confirmed this figure as it has not yet been “confirmed by an official source”, a spokesperson told the BBC.

Disturbing videos emerged on Monday showing the dire conditions at the disused gold mine.

In one of the films, which the BBC has not independently verified, bodies can be seen wrapped in mobile body bags. A second shows the numbers of miners still alive.

Hundreds are believed to still be in the mine and more than 1,000 have emerged in recent months.

In one of the videos released by the trade union, General Industries Workers of South Africa (Giwusa), dozens of shirtless men can be seen sitting on a dirty floor. Their faces have been blurred. A male voice can be heard off camera saying that the men are hungry and that they need help.

“We are starting to show you the bodies of those who died underground,” he says.

“And this is not all… Do you see how people are struggling? Please we need help.”

In the other video, a man says: “This is hunger; people are dying of hunger. He then places the death toll at 96 and begs for help, food and supplies.

The union says the footage was filmed on Saturday.

In a briefing held on Monday near the site of the rescue operation, the Giwusa leadership, together with community figures, said the videos shared “painted a terrible picture” of the situation underground .

“What happened here must be called what it is; this is the Stilfontein massacre. Because what this film is doing is showing a bunch of human bodies, of miners who died needlessly,” said the president of Giwusa, Mametlwe Sebei.

He blamed the authorities for what he described as a “false policy” that was deliberately followed.

The department of mineral resources, which led the rescue effort, told the BBC that Monday's operation involved lowering a cage which is then lifted up once it is full of people.

This structure is designed to hold six or seven people, depending on their weight, according to Giwusa. It has been going down the leg every hour.