The government is trying to starve more than 1,000 informal prospectors out of a shaft of the Buffelsfontein mine, which police say extends some 8,000 feet below ground.

South African police were in a standoff on Thursday with hundreds of illegal miners believed to be underground in a disused shaft, a day after a cabinet minister said the government was trying to "smoke them out".

Police say they are trying to force the miners — believed to have been underground for several weeks — to resurface