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.

A group representing informal miners in South Africa says at least 100 men who were mining illegally in an abandoned gold mine have died after being trapped deep underground for months while police tried to get them out.

A rescue operation is underway at an abandoned South African gold mine where illegal miners were trapped. Initially, over 78 fatalities have been reported, with survivors being rescued slowly. Civic groups blame government tactics for the disaster,