The two survivors speak quietly as they recount how emaciated miners broke the ultimate taboo to avoid dying of hunger.

Trapped nearly a mile beneath the earth after police blocked their food and water, one recalled how his colleagues “resorted to cannibalism”.

“They cut parts of legs, arms, and ribs for sustenance. They decided it was their only remaining option for survival,” the man, who declined to be named, told The Telegraph.

His claims echo similar accounts slowly emerging from a mining disaster which has shocked but also divided South Africa.

While he and his colleague insist they did not take part, they were forced into their own desperate acts, eating cockroaches after running out of food.