Rescuers recovered 51 additional bodies from an abandoned gold mine in South Africa on Tuesday, raising the death toll to 60 after nine bodies were retrieved on Monday, the first day of a massive rescue operation.

Residents desperately waiting for news of family members gathered at the mine, some holding placards criticizing authorities for their response.

Rescuers continued retrieving bodies Wednesday from an abandoned South African gold mine with hundreds more still believed to be underground, many of them dead and others too weak to come out on their own.

The closed Buffelsfontein Gold Mine was the scene of a standoff in November when police tried to force the miners out by cutting off their supplies.