Trapped miners being freed from South African mine (BLOG)

(CNN) -- Rescuers are gradually freeing more and more miners Sunday who have been trapped in a mine in South Africa since Saturday.

The mine is an abandoned gold mine in Benoni, just outside Johannesburg, and it was being worked illegally. Boulders blocking the miners from exiting the mine have been removed, according to South Africa's rescue service ER24. It is unclear if rescue crews can now assist all the trapped miners, or only those trapped closer to the top of the shaft.

Earlier, 30 miners at the top of the shaft told emergency teams that more than 200 other miners are trapped farther down the mine's shaft.

Initially ER24 spokesman Werner Vermaak said that a rockslide trapped the miners. But Govan Whittles, a reporter for South Africa Eyewitness News at the scene, said the miners told rescuers that a rival group dropped boulders down the shaft to trap them.

Police looking for illegal dumping heard the men crying for help. The miners said they had been trapped since Saturday afternoon, ER24 said.

Gold-rich South Africa has repeatedly warned its citizens against trying to dig into old mines. Illegal mining "poses a danger not only to the miners themselves, but to the communities, as well as the economy and existing mines," Mineral Resources Minister Susan Shabangu said in September.

South Africa's Parliament has discussed legalizing the illegal mines to allow the miners to earn a living, but the cost of bringing the mines up to modern safety codes could be prohibitive.

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Sunday, February 16, 2014