Two weeks on, 11 are rescued after explosion in Chinese gold mine
Eleven workers trapped for two weeks inside a Chinese gold mine have been brought safely to the surface, a landmark achievement for an industry blighted by disasters and high death tolls.
State broadcaster CCTV showed workers being hauled up one by one in baskets yesterday afternoon, their eyes shielded to protect them after so many days in darkness.
Some brought their hands together in gratitude and many appeared almost too weak to stand.
They were swiftly covered in coats in freezing temperatures and loaded into ambulances.
Hundreds of rescue workers and officials applauded as the workers were brought up from the mine in Qixia, a jurisdiction under Yantai in the eastern coastal province of Shandong.
One worker was reported to have died from a head wound after an explosion deposited massive amounts of rubble in the shaft on 10 January while the mine was still under construction.
The fate of ten others who were underground at the time is unknown. Authorities have detained mine managers for delaying reporting the accident.
The rescue operation, which has been able to get food and medicines to the miners, was expected to take at least another two weeks, local government authorities have said.
Photographs shared on Friday showed that white bottles of food and water sent down to the trapped workers had a note stuck on them saying, "We are all waiting for you, keep going!".
The food items sent to the workers included millet porridge, quail eggs, pickles and sausages and medical supplies included disinfectant, masks and cotton socks.
The People's Daily, the official newspaper of China's ruling Communist Party, had reported on Friday: "The physical condition, psychological condition and living environment of ten miners in the middle section of the mine are good.
"The miners continued to search for other trapped persons through laser pointer projection and loudspeaker shouting.”
The cause of the accident is under investigation but the explosion was large enough to release 70 tons of debris that blocked the shaft, disabling elevators and trapping workers underground.
Rescuers drilled parallel shafts to send down food and nutrients and eventually bring up the survivors, ten of whom had been in a lower chamber and one in a separate area slightly closer to the surface.
The official China Daily newspaper said on its website that seven of the workers were able to walk to ambulances on their own.
Protracted and expensive rescue efforts are relatively new in China's mining industry, which used to average 5,000 deaths per year.
Increased supervision has improved safety, although the overwhelming demand for coal and precious metals continues to prompt cornercutting.
A new crackdown was ordered after two accidents in south-western Chongqing last year killed 39 miners.