At least 12 trapped miners are still alive. The Chinese gold miners have been trapped hundreds of metres underground in China for more than a week after an explosion.
They have sent up a note warning that some are injured, water surrounds them and they urgently need medicine.
The following written content from BBC
They sent back a note saying “don’t stop trying to reach us” when rescuers seeking signs of life lowered down food rations taped to wire cable.
A telephone connection has now been set up. The fate of another 10 men missing after the blast remains unclear.
Mining accidents in China are not uncommon and are often due to poorly enforced safety regulations.
The 22 were trapped at the Hushan mine near Yantai in eastern Shandong province on 10 January after an explosion damaged the exit and the communications system of the mine, which was still under construction.
Rescuers have spent days tapping and waiting for signs of survivors – until finally they felt pulling on ropes they had lowered into the mine.
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According to state media, rescuers managed to make contact with some of the miners through a long, thin communication shaft they had drilled from the surface. They later sent food, medicine, paper and pencils into the hole.
According to the handwritten note they retrieved back from the shaft, 12 people are alive in the middle section of the mine.
“There are 11 others – one is injured, and the status of the remaining 10 is unclear,” said the note-writer. In it he asks for pain killers and says they hope for a rescue, before ending with thanks to the rescue team.
Later on Monday, Chen Fei, the deputy secretary of Shandong’s Yantai city, said phone contact had also now been made with the trapped miners, who he said are “currently very weak”.
“After we opened up the third shaft, it had a really excitable effect on the people connected. They were very confident and very hopeful that they would soon be able to get out of the mine,” he told a news conference.
“We established they needed emergency medicines and equipment.”
Read the previous story from January 12th Gold mine explosion 22 trapped
