Six more bodies have been pulled from a South African mine, national NGO umbrella agency Sanco told reporters, as rescue efforts continued for a second day to help dozens of people believed to be still at least 2 kilometers underground ( 1.2 miles) of illegal miners. British Broadcasting Corporation.

Eight more people survived on Tuesday after 26 people were rescued on Monday after being lifted into the abandoned mine in cages on an above-ground crane. Nine bodies were discovered on Monday.

The men have been operating underground since police began a nationwide crackdown on illegal mining last year.

Last week, a court ordered the government to assist in a long-delayed rescue operation.

This story contains a video that some people may find distressing.

Last year, authorities took a hard line and blocked food and water supplies on the grounds that miners deliberately entered the Steelfontein mine without permission.

“We’re going to get them out,” a government minister said in November.

More than 100 illegal miners, known locally as “zama zamas”, have reportedly died since the crackdown began at the mine, about 145 kilometers (90 miles) southwest of Johannesburg.

However, a spokesman told the BBC that authorities had not confirmed the figure as it had not yet been “confirmed by official sources”.

Disturbing video showed the dire conditions at an abandoned gold mine on Monday.

In one footage, which the BBC has not independently verified, bodies can be seen wrapped in makeshift body bags. The second photo shows the emaciated figures of some of the miners still alive.

Hundreds of people are believed to still be in the mine, while more than 1,000 have surfaced in the past few months.

In a video posted by the General Industrial Workers Union of South Africa (Giwusa), dozens of shirtless men can be seen sitting on a dirty floor. Their faces were blurred. A male voice from off-camera says the men are hungry and need help.

“We started showing you the bodies of people who died in the ground,” he said.

“That’s not all… you see how people are struggling? Please, we need help.”

In another video, a man said: “This is hunger; people die from hunger.” He then put the death toll at 96 and asked for help, food and supplies.

The union said the video was filmed on Saturday.

At a briefing on Monday near the site of the rescue operation, Giusa leadership and community figures said the video shared “paints a very horrific picture of the situation underground”.

Giusa President Mametlwe Sebei said: “What happened here must be described accurately; it was a massacre in Steelfontein. Because the video shows a pile of human bodies, and the needless deaths of miners.”

He accused authorities of what he called a deliberate “policy of perfidy.”

The Department of Mineral Resources, which is leading the rescue effort, told the BBC that Monday’s operation involved lowering a cage and then raising it once it was filled with people.

The structure is designed to accommodate six to seven people, depending on their weight, Giusa said. It descends the shaft every hour.