An estimated 4,000 illegal gold miners are hiding underground in South Africa after the government cut off food and water in an effort to "smoke them out" and arrest them. The miners have been in a mineshaft in Stilfontein, in the North West province, for about a month.

Several hundred people were believed to be in an illegal mine in South Africa on Thursday with the government refusing to help them in a bid to force them to come to the surface.

Illegal mining continues to be widespread in South Africa, where miners enter abandoned shafts to search for remaining deposits.