The volunteers risked their lives to venture thousands of feet underground and retrieve their neighbors. What they found was horrific.

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

More than 70 people have reportedly died while trapped in a mine after a monthlong standoff with the South African government over illegal mining. CBS News' Chris Livesay has more.

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa is facing calls to order a national inquiry into a police operation that was meant to combat illegal mining but ended up leaving 87 miners to die underground as

Police say the death toll in a monthslong standoff between authorities and miners trapped while working illegally underground at an abandoned gold mine in South Africa has risen to at least 87.

Allegations that the miners resorted to eating human flesh in order to survive were also made by other miners who were rescued in December, in statements submitted to the high court. Mkwayi, a former convict,