A South African bishop has described in detail what he saw and heard as the bodies were being taken from an abandoned gold mine in Stilfontein, South Africa.

Dozens of men sat and lay together in small caves, some so shallow they couldn’t stand up. The air was wet and stuffy, and wracking coughs echoed in the confined space. Bodies wrapped in fabric and twine were set aside in rows nearby.

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa is facing calls to order a national inquiry into a police operation that was meant to combat illegal mining but ended up leaving 87 miners to die underground as