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.

A community rescue effort to help illegal miners trapped in a mine shaft in South Africa emerged after police said they wouldn't help.

A South African court on Saturday ordered an end to the police blockade of a former gold mine, where hundreds, possibly thousands, of illegal miners are thought to be underground.