The South African Police Service (SAPS) estimates that 350 to 400 illegal miners are refusing to resurface from an abandoned mine shaft at Stilfontein, North West. Initially, a local community member who volunteered to assess the situation underground on Tuesday reported an estimated 4,000 to 4,500 miners.

Upwards of 4,000 illegal miners are believed to be inside an abandoned shaft in the country's North West province. A government minister warned, "we are going to smoke them out." South Africa's government says it is not willing to help around 4,

Operation Vala Umgodi task team in the North West province has reiterated the call to those illegal miners who are still underground in the Stilfontein area, to return to the surface.

An estimated 4,000 illegal gold miners are hiding underground in South Africa after the government cut off food and water in an effort to "smoke them out" and arrest them. The miners have been in a mineshaft in Stilfontein,

Several hundred people are believed to remain in an illegal mine in South Africa after the government cut off vital supplies and refused to help them, in a dramatic bid to crack down on the industry.

A body was brought out of an abandoned South African gold mine as police tried to evict hundreds of illegal miners hiding out in the workings.

South African police and ambulances were at the site Thursday of an old gold mine shaft where around 4,000 illegal miners were claimed to be underground, facing arrest if they surface.