South Africa's President Cyril Ramaphosa said on Monday lives should not be put at risk in a standoff between police and hundreds of illegal miners stuck underground in a disused mine shaft and the miners should be recovered safely.

The South African police intensified efforts to force hundreds of illegal gold miners holed in underground shafts to the surface so they can be arrested.

The police have cut off food and water to miners for weeks in a bid to force them out of an abandoned mine. Human rights advocates and community leaders call the tactics inhumane.

South Africa’s government says it will not help an estimated 4,000 illegal miners inside a closed mine in the country’s North West province as part of an official policy against illegal mining.

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.