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BEIJING: Chinese rescuers pulled seven gold miners to safety on Sunday 14 days after they were trapped by an underground explosion.
According to the state broadcaster CCTV reported, with at least four others still believed to be alive in the mine. Earlier, 22 workers were trapped in the Hushan mine by the January 10 blast in Qixia, a major gold-producing region under the administration of Yantai in coastal Shandong province.
Footage showed the first miner to be rescued, a black blindfold across his eyes, being lifted out of a mine shaft in the morning.
LIVE: Chinese rescuers are going all out to save miners trapped hundreds of meters underground in Shandong Province. Some of the miners are expected to be lifted to the surface of the earth later today https://t.co/6jgJb5nZI9
— China Xinhua News (@XHNews) January 24, 2021
The miner was extremely weak, CCTV said on its Weibo site. Rescue workers wrapped the barely responsive man in a blanket before taking him to the hospital by ambulance.
Later, another three miners were brought out from a different section of the mine, including one who was injured. Three more from the same section followed in the early afternoon. According to a Xinhua report from last week, one miner has died and 11 have not been in contact with rescue teams.
On Thursday, officials said it could take another two weeks to clear “severe blockages” before they could drill shafts to reach a group of 10 men who had been receiving supplies of food from the rescue team.
State media said earlier however that the more than 600 rescuers on-site were hoping to reach the men in the mine’s fifth section on Sunday.
The men were said to be in the good physical condition and had been receiving normal food since Saturday, after several days of living off nutrient solutions, according to Xinhua.
