Thirty-seven people working in an illegal mine in Nigeria died in the authorities’ custody this week shortly after they were arrested, officials said, sparking angry protests as survivors described being packed in an overcrowded cell with little air.

The miners were found dead in their cell on Thursday at a detention facility in Niger State, in northern Nigeria, according to the agency that detained them on Tuesday and Wednesday.

The agency, the Nigerian Security and Civil Defense Corps, initially blamed the deaths on “a suspected disease.”

But one survivor told The New York Times that more than 60 people had been packed into a single cell with barely any ventilation, food, or water.

“We kept banging on the door,” Dauda Shehu, 38, said in a phone interview from a hospital where he and 11 other survivors were taken.

Survivors speaking to other news outlets described similar conditions in the cell, where Mr. Shehu and at least 65 other miners were detained after their arrest. He said that he was lucky to be near the cell door, where there was a tiny opening for air, but that many were further away.

“When people started dying, we kept calling out to them, but they did not listen,” Mr. Shehu said of the authorities. Some of those who died were desperately thirsty but were denied water, so they drank their own urine, he said.

As in much of Africa, small-scale mining is common in Nigeria. Gold mining in mineral-rich areas is a major source of livelihood in some of the country’s rural and impoverished communities.

But many of the mines are illegal and overseen by criminal and armed groups, or connected to international mining companies exploiting lax regulations and insecurity.

Over the past year, disasters at small scale mines have killed hundreds of people, while the movement of people in and out of a mining community in the Democratic Republic of Congo has helped spread the Ebola virus. This month, at least 70 people died at a gold mine in Sudan, and in August, officials reported about 100 deaths at a mine in Central African Republic.

The deaths of the miners in Nigeria quickly sparked angry demonstrations. Hundreds of protesters took to the streets on Friday in the state capital, Minna, where the miners were arrested. The police responded with live rounds, Reuters reported. Some of the protesters rioted, burning a government building, witnesses said.

Umar Bago, the governor of Niger State, said on Friday that officials were investigating the “tragic” incident. Mr. Bago said that several officials, including the head of the agency which arrested the miners, had been suspended, and he urged protesters to remain calm.

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By Emmanuel Akinwotu and Ismail Auwal