South African authorities have ome under intense scrutiny for their response after civic groups said hundreds of miners have been trapped deep in an abandoned gold mine for months

Rescuers are sending a cage-like structure into one of South Africa’s deepest mines in an attempt to bring out survivors among hundreds of illegal miners trapped for months in an abandoned shaft

Authorities launched an operation in November to force the illegally operating miners out by cutting off food and water from the surface for a time. Hundreds are thought to remain underground.

Arguing that the miners had entered the mine without permission, authorities reportedly cracked down by cutting off their access to food and water.