Johannesburg, Jan 16 || A total of 246 survivors and 78 bodies have been brought to the ground over three days of rescue operation at an abandoned gold mine in South Africa, the police said.
In a statement issued at 8:00 p.m. Wednesday, the South African Police Service (SAPS) said that 246 illegal miners had been retrieved alive from underground and had been arrested since the rescue operation commenced on Monday at the Stilfontein mine in the North West Province. The number of bodies recovered stood at 78, the same as the previous update released at 4:00 pm, news agency reported.
"We cannot say for sure that the operation has been called off at this stage," SAPS national spokesperson Athlenda Mathe told.
She made the remarks after volunteers involved in the rescue operation told the media that there were no more survivors or bodies underground.
Mathe said the Mine Rescue Service, which has been responsible for the operation in Stilfontein, would send a cage underground on Thursday morning "to see if any illegal miners resurface with the cage."