THE death toll has risen to at least 87 in a stand-off between police and miners trapped while working illegally underground at an abandoned goldmine in South Africa, police said today.

This came as authorities wound down a rescue operation that has retrieved more than 240 survivors.

National police spokesperson Athlenda Mathe said that 78 bodies were rescued in an official operation that began on Monday, while another nine had previously been recovered. 

She did not give details on how those other bodies were retrieved. 

Community groups have said they launched their own rescue attempts when authorities said last year that they would not help the miners because they were criminals.

The miners are suspected to have died of starvation and dehydration.

Authorities now believe that nearly 2,000 miners were underground, working illegally at the Buffelsfontein Gold Mine south-west of Johannesburg since August last year. 

Many of them resurfaced on their own over the last few months, police said, and all the survivors have been arrested.

The mine is one of the deepest in South Africa; the miners were working up to 1.5 miles underground.

Ms Mathe said at least 13 children had also come out of the mine before the official rescue operation. 

South African authorities have been widely slammed for their approach, having cut off food and supplies to the miners for a period of time last year in an attempt, as one cabinet minister said, to “smoke them out.”

Civic groups have said authorities have contributed to dozens of deaths, while there are calls for an independent inquiry to investigate what happened.

Police maintain that the miners were able to come out through several different shafts, but many refused for fear of arrest. 

The claim is disputed by groups representing the miners, who say some were trapped and left starving underground.