4 Miners Rescued in China after 36 Days Underground
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – Four miners trapped underground for 36 days in a collapsed Chinese gypsum mine were pulled out.
The final operation to save the men trapped more than 200 meters (660 feet) underground took two hours as they were hauled up to the surface one by one in a rescue "capsule", according to state broadcaster CCTV.
The incident drew comparisons to a 2010 mining accident in the South American country of Chile, which saw 33 miners trapped underground for 69 days before their rescue.
"It is a miracle," said Zeng Kunyuan on microblog Weibo, China's equivalent of Twitter.
"I hope they can sit at the dinner table on the eve of Spring Festival!" the posting said, referring to the upcoming Chinese New Year when people return home to have a traditional meal with their families.
Dramatic footage released by CCTV showed rescue crews applauding as the men were brought above ground in China's eastern province of Shandong.
The men were shown being wrapped in military blankets, blindfolded to protect their eyes, and put into ambulances. The four were named by CCTV as Zhao Zhicheng, aged 50, Li Qiusheng, 39, Guan Qingji, 58, and Hua Mingxi, 36.
They had suffered no major injuries and would soon be able to return home, the official Xinhua news agency quoted Cao Qingde, deputy head of the local hospital where they were being treated, as saying.
The four were among 29 trapped when the mine collapsed on Dec. 25. Of the 29 miners, 11 were rescued the following day and one was pronounced dead while 13 remained unaccounted for following the rescue, the report added.
Accidents linked to lax industrial safety enforcement saw hundreds of people killed in China last year, including a landslide in the southern commercial hub of Shenzhen in December and chemical blasts in the industrial city of Tianjin in August.
