The South Africa Police Service's Operation Vala Umgodi task team in the North West province has reaffirmed its call for illegal miners to return to the surface who are still underground. Police are in a standoff with hundreds of illegal miners trapped in a disused shaft.

Miners are believed to be suffering from a lack of food, water and other basic necessities after police closed off the entrances used to transport supplies.

South Africa's government says it will let thousands of illegal miners starve until they accept their fate and emerge from an abandoned shaft to face arrest.

South Africa's government says it will not help an estimated 4,000 illegal miners inside a closed mine in the country's North West province who have been denied access to basic supplies as part of an official strategy against illegal mining.

Up to 4,000 illegal miners are estimated to be underground in an abandoned mine while South African authorities try to clear them out and arrest them. View on euronews