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

Standing near the rim of a nearly 2-mile deep shaft, Zinzi Tom waited for word of her brother as the authorities began a long-delayed operation to rescue hundreds of gold miners trapped underground for months.

The prospectors were trapped underground for months as police, on orders from South Africa’s government, attempted to starve them out.