A South African court ordered police to end a standoff with illegal miners to allow emergency workers to gain access to a mine shaft where several hundred are believed to remain after the government cut off vital supplies.

Officials are blocking access to basic supplies for hundreds of people underground in a northwest mine shaft as part of a crackdown on miners.

Around the gaping shaft of a disused mine, the South African police on Saturday waited to pounce on anyone trying to escape to the surface. Their siege has gone on for weeks, trying to flush out hundreds of men accused of illegal mining in an abandoned gold mine,