STILFONTEIN, South Africa — Months after South African authorities initially cut off supplies to miners working illegally in an abandoned gold mine, rescuers brought dozens of bodies and emaciated survivors to the surface Tuesday with hundreds more still believed to be underground, many of them dead and others too weak to come out on their own.

At least 60 bodies and 92 survivors had been pulled from one of South Africa’s deepest mines since Monday in a red cagelike device lowered thousands of feet underground, police said. Police are uncertain how many miners remain inside but said it is likely in the hundreds. Another nine bodies were brought out Friday in a community-led rescue effort, according to a group representing the miners.

The mine has been the scene of a tense standoff between police, miners and members of the local community since authorities launched an operation in November to force the miners out by cutting off food and water.

At the time, a Cabinet minister said the aim was to “smoke them out” and the government would not send help because they were “criminals.”

— The Associated Press