Nine miners trapped under the flooded Wangjialing coal mine in north China's Shanxi Province were taken out of the shaft Monday morning miraculously to safety, after 179 hours underground.
The survivors were immediately sent to a nearby hospital for medical treatment. Their blood pressure and heart rates remained normal after having being trapped in the shaft for one week.
Thousands of people kept standing along the road at midnight and burst into applause when the ambulances carrying the survivors passed by.
The first group of rescuers and divers entered a flooded Chinese mine where 153 workers have been trapped for almost a week, but they returned within hours Saturday and called the situation underground "very difficult." There were no further signs of life after tapping was heard the previous day.
The divers said black, murky water was complicating efforts to reach the site where rescuers hope miners are still alive, state-run China Central Television reported.
Television footage on Friday afternoon showed rescuers tapping on pipes with a wrench, then cheering and jumping after hearing a response, the first sign of life since the mine flooded last Sunday. They lowered pens and paper, along with glucose and milk, down metal pipes into the mine.
Ambulances are standing by with medical staff to ensure immediate treatment once the trapped miners are rescued at the Wangjialing Coal Mine in Xiangning County, north China's Shanxi Province, April 3, 2010.
Rescuers get prepared to enter the flooded shaft at the Wangjialing Coal Mine in Xiangning County, north China's Shanxi Province.
Rescuers work at the Wangjialing Coal Mine in Xiangning County, north China's Shanxi Province.
Rescuers get prepared to enter the flooded shaft at the Wangjialing Coal Mine in Xiangning County, north China's Shanxi Province.
A rescuer who worked for over ten hours in the shaft gets out at the Wangjialing Coal Mine in Xiangning County, north China's Shanxi Province.
Medical staff are standing by in an ambulance at the Wangjialing Coal Mine in Xiangning County, north China's Shanxi Province.
Rescuers send pipelines to pump out water of the flooded shaft at the Wangjialing Coal Mine in Xiangning County, north China's Shanxi Province, April 3, 2010.
Rescuers get prepared to enter the flooded shaft at the Wangjialing Coal Mine in Xiangning County, north China's Shanxi Province, April 3, 2010.
Rescuers work at the accident site of the Wangjialing Coal Mine in Xiangning County, north China's Shanxi Province, April 3, 2010.
Rescuers get prepared to enter the flooded shaft at the Wangjialing Coal Mine in Xiangning County, north China's Shanxi Province, April 3, 2010.
A rescuer looks at a pit of Wangjialing Coal Mine in north China's Shanxi Province, April 2, 2010. Rescuers on Friday heard the sound of knocking on pipes at the flooded north China coal mine where 153 miners have been trapped for nearly six days.
The cloth tied to bags of glucose at the end of a drill pipe is apparently torn up by trapped miners at Wangjialing Coal Mine in north China's Shanxi Province, April 2, 2010.
Rescuers talk about the rescue plan at Wangjialing Coal Mine in north China's Shanxi Province, April 2, 2010.
(Sourced from Xinhua and peopledaily.com)
