Disturbing videos have emerged showing the horrific situation in an abandoned gold mine in South Africa where dozens of illegal miners have reportedly been living underground for months.
They have been there since police operations against illegal mining began across the country last year.
One of the videos, which has not been independently confirmed by the BBC, shows corpses wrapped in makeshift body bags. Another shows the emaciated figures of some of the miners who are still alive.
The long-delayed rescue operation, which a court ordered the government to facilitate last week, began on Monday.
Last year, claiming that the miners entered the Stilfontein shaft deliberately without permission, the authorities took a hard line, blocking food and water supplies.
In November, a government minister said: “We will smoke them out.”
More than 100 illegal miners, known locally as “zama zamas”, have reportedly died underground since the mine began collapsing some 145 km (90 miles) southwest of Johannesburg.
The authorities, however, have not confirmed this figure as it has yet to be “verified by an official source”, a spokesman told the BBC.
Hundreds are thought to still be in the mine, while more than 1,000 have surfaced in the past few months.
In one of the videos released by the union, General Industries Workers of South Africa (Giwusa), dozens of shirtless men can be seen sitting on a dirty floor. Their faces are blurred. Off camera, a male voice is heard saying that the men are hungry and need help.
“We’re 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 another video, a man says: “This is hunger; people are dying of hunger.” He then states that the death toll is 96 and pleads for help, food and supplies.
The union says the video was taken on Saturday.
At a briefing on Monday near the site of the rescue operation, the Giwusa leadership, along with community representatives, said the videos shared “paint a very dire picture” of the situation underground.
“What happened here must be called what it is; this is the Stilfontein massacre. Because what this footage does is show a pile of human bodies, miners who died needlessly,” said Giwusa president Mametlwe Sebei.
He blamed the authorities for, as he said, a “treasonous policy” that is being deliberately implemented.
The Department of Mineral Resources, which is leading the rescue effort, told the BBC that Monday’s operation involved lowering a cage that had been raised after it had been loaded with people.
This structure is designed to accommodate six or seven people, depending on their weight, according to Giwusa. It went down the shaft – descending about 2 km – every hour. The union said that by the end of Monday, 26 miners had been pulled out alive along with nine bodies.
Ministry of Mineral Resources spokesperson Makhosonka Buthelezi could not confirm whether the priority would be to retrieve those who died or those who needed medical attention.
The department, along with the police ministry, will hold a briefing on Tuesday to provide an update on the operation.
