Rescue teams in South Africa have stepped up efforts to pull out survivors and the corpses of illegal miners trapped underground for about two months, following one of the most extraordinary tragedies to hit the industry.

The clampdown on illegal mining cut off food and water to hundreds of miners underground. At least 78 bodies were pulled from a mining shaft this week, and more are believed to remain underground.

A total of 78 bodies and 166 survivors - some of them emaciated and disorientated - have been hauled out so far in a court-ordered rescue operation, with hundreds more men still stuck 2 km (1.5 miles) below the surface in a gold mine at Stilfontein,