As police forensics experts gather evidence under spotlights, they run out of formal cones to mark the points at which evidence is gathered. They turn to using their polystyrene coffee cups as markers.

On the other side of Wonderkop shantytown, striking miners gather on a dry, overgrazed field to discuss their response to the massacre yesterday that saw more than 30 people killed by police gunfire.

A miner who refuses to be named says, "The police are meant to protect us, but they only kill us."

Others around him murmur their assent, adding, "They did not even warn us, they just started shooting."

The miners see the police as siding with management in the violent dispute.

"When one of our miners passed a Nyala, there was a homeboy of his from the Eastern Cape inside, and he told him that today was D-day, that they were to come and shoot. He said there was a paper signed allowing them to shoot us."

No-one is sure who is among the dead, nor who is injured. Many have been arrested. One rock drill operator says his brother did not return home last night, that he has no idea as to his fate. Another says his uncle has not returned either.

"We are living with fear, we want a solution," another man says.

Yet yesterday the mood was very different. A photographer who witnessed the massacre says he saw the leading group of strikers "charging the police with their pangas and spears raised; they wanted to kill and murder."

The police said over the loudspeaker that they wanted the strikers to lay down their weapons, and began to cordon off the hill. A large group of the strikers then tried to escape the cordon. The police used stun grenades and teargas. What happened then is unclear; perhaps the group who had the pistols wanted to ensure they escape being searched, disarmed and arrested.

Another journalist who witnessed the scene said, "It was bad, bad. I am not sure if they were attacking the police or just trying to escape. But it was hectic.

"If they had wanted to escape the police, they could have run in the opposite direction, like others did. This group ran at the police."

In the aftermath, he saw the police collect what he estimates as eight pistols from among the dead and wounded. The photographer identified two of the driller leaders who had represented the workers in their talks as having been in the charging group and were now dead. (These two are the man in the green and gold tracksuit top and the man in the green blanket).

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