Police say the death toll in a monthslong standoff between authorities and miners trapped while working illegally underground at an abandoned gold mine in South Africa has risen to at least 87.

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

Volunteers from the community who are familiar with the mine have been in the cage as it is dropped deep underground.

At least 100 illegal miners have died of suspected starvation and dehydration after being trapped underground for months in an abandoned gold mine in North

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 authorities have ome under intense scrutiny for their response after civic groups said hundreds of miners have been trapped deep in an abandoned gold mine for months

The clampdown on illegal mining cut off food and water to hundreds of miners underground. At least 78 bodies were pulled from a mining shaft this week, and more are believed to remain underground.