A miner who spent six months in a disused mine in South Africa has spoken of the horror he experienced after a police operation cut off food and basic supplies to thousands who were illegally digging for gold.

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

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) -South African authorities have pulled at least 60 bodies from the shaft of a closed gold mine more than 2 km (1.2 miles) underground where an unknown number of men are still feared trapped,