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

Sixty bodies have been removed from a disused gold shaft in South Africa, months into a campaign to try to clear out illegal miners, police said Wednesday.

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