By Siyabonga Sishi and Nellie PeytonSTILFONTEIN, South Africa (Reuters) - South African rescuers were making final efforts on Thursday to ascertain whether anyone was left in an illegal gold mine deep underground where at least 78 people died during a police siege,

The South African government has launched a rescue operation at an abandoned gold mine in the country’s North West province, where at least 109 men have died, a group representing the miners said, after local authorities cut off vital supplies in a dramatic bid to crack down on the country’s illegal mining trade.

Rescuers have recovered the bodies of 11 coal miners who died in a methane gas explosion and mine collapse in Balochistan, Pakistan. The collapse occurred in Singidi city last week and efforts are still underway to find a missing worker.

South African rescuers ended their attempts on Thursday to find anyone left in an illegal gold mine where at least 78 people died during a police siege, as a local volunteer described the horror of extracting their bodies from deep underground.

A rescue team in South Africa has finished a recovery operation to find more than 200 miners trapped in an abandoned gold mine. CBS News foreign correspondent Chris Livesay reports.