South African police forced 540 illegal miners into an abandoned mine shaft and arrested them.
At the beginning of this week, the security forces blocked the delivery of food and water to the miners in order to get them out of the mine.
The miners encountered “starvation and dehydration” and were forced to re-emerge, police said.
People have been evacuating the mine, north of the Orkney town, since Saturday, although hundreds are believed to still be trapped in the pit.
On Sunday, the national police chief urged the security forces to “not back down” and “ensure that law is restored,” the force said in a statement.
The statement said that earlier this week, security forces “prevented communities in the vicinity of these derelict miners in Orkney from delivering parcels of food, water and supplies to these illegal miners”.
Police reported on Saturday that 225 miners had resurfaced, but “hundreds if not a thousand” are thought to be still underground.
In a statement issued on Sunday, the national army said that 340 other people came out of the mine and were arrested.
Thousands of illegal miners, known as “zama zamas” (“those who try their luck” in Zulu), work in the mineral-rich country.
The National Police Commissioner, Lt General Shadrack Sibiya, said that as of December 2023, more than 13,690 suspects have been arrested in seven states.
“We seized R5 million ($283,000; $220,000) and rough diamonds worth R32 million ($1.8m; £1.4m),” he said.
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