Four Miners Rescued After 36 Days In China
KABUL: (MEP) Rescuers have managed to pull out four miners who had been trapped down in eastern province of Shandong’s China for 36 days, Chinese state media says.
The four were taken in stable condition to a local hospital, according to local media.
The gypsum mine collapsed near the town of Pingyi on Christmas Day, killing one and leaving 17 missing, including the four survivors. In the days that followed, rescuers detected the four more than 200 meters (660 feet) below the surface.
However, the fate of 13 miners remains unknown.
The survivors were identified as Hao Zhicheng, aged 50, Li Qiusheng, aged 39, Guan Qingji, 58, and 36-year-old Hua Mingxi, state broadcaster CCTV reported.
Rescuers brought out the workers through two access tunnels they had drilled, and the first miner was pulled out in a capsule, according to the official Xinhua News Agency.
Rescuers managed to contact the miners on January 8, and sent down food, water, clothes and lamps through a tunnel and some 400 rescue and emergency workers took on the operation.
The collapse on Dec. 25 was so violent it registered as a seismic event registering magnitude 4, the Associated Press reports. Five days later, infrared cameras detected the four miners weak with hunger waving their hands.
Two days after the collapse, the owner of the mine, Ma Congbo, jumped into a well and drowned in an apparent suicide. Four top officials in Pingyi County, where the mine is located, have been fired.
Officials said the search would continue for the miners still missing.
