NINE WORKERS have been pulled to safety after spending more than a week trapped in a flooded coal mine in northern China, according to reports on state TV.
China Central Television showed images of the miners being rushed away in ambulances to hospitals after being rescued.
Rescue workers had mounted a large-scale operation to rescue any survivors among 153 miners trapped by flooding in the mine.
Tapping was heard on Friday, prompting renewed hopes that the men were alive.
Getting to the location underground at the Wangjialing coal mine where surviving miners have been located was “very difficult”, one diver who explored the site on Saturday told the Xinhua news agency. He said the situation was “very complicated” and the water was “murky and deep”.
Some 3,000 people have been working to pump out water that poured in when miners digging tunnels broke into an abandoned shaft at the mine in Shanxi province on March 28th.
China’s state council, or cabinet, has a two-month campaign to inspect work safety nationwide starting today, with a strong focus on safety in mines, the chemical industry, transportation and fireworks factories. – (Additional reporting AP)