South African police lowered a camera down more than a mile (1.5 km) underground into an illegal gold mine on Thursday to ascertain if any survivors or corpses were still there after a months-long siege by authorities in which at least 78 miners died.

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.

No more illegal miners are believed to be trapped underground at a gold mine in South Africa, volunteers working with rescue teams have said.

South African police have ended a rescue operation at an abandoned gold mine where hundreds of illegal miners were trapped for months and say they believe they have rescued all the survivors and retri

Rescuers and volunteers have pulled at least 78 dead miners and more than 160 survivors from an abandoned South African gold mine

Rescuers pulled more bodies from a disused gold shaft in South Africa where the toll climbed to 78 Wednesday as police try to clear out illegal miners who have been underground for months. - Gold, explosives confiscated - Illegal miners had taken over the shaft that was once part of South Africa's vast mining industry.