CHINA: Dozens found alive in flooded Chinese mine

9:54 PM PDT, April 4, 2010

Los Angeles Times Staff Writer

Rescuers cheer as some of the workers trapped for more than a week are brought to the surface.

XIANGNING, China - Dozens of Chinese miners were pulled out alive after being trapped for more than a week in a flooded coal mine, sparking cheers among the hundreds of rescue workers who had raced to save them and had almost given up hope.

A live state television broadcast counted off the number of survivors -- now up to 35 -- as miners wrapped in blankets were hurried to ambulances that sped to nearby hospitals.

State television said rescuers were preparing to pull as many as 70 to 80 miners out of the mine, though conditions underground remain complicated. A total of 153 workers had been trapped, and there was no word on the fate of the rest.

"A miracle has finally happened," a rescue headquarters spokesman, Liu Dezheng, told reporters Monday morning.

The first rescue early Monday morning had seemed beyond hope for days before crews heard tapping from deep underground Friday.

Some of the soaked miners had hung from shaft walls by their belts for days. Hundreds of rescuers were underground with hopes that glimpses of swinging lights and new tapping sounds meant even more survivors could be found.

Liu said the first batch of nine rescued miners, who were pulled out Monday morning shortly after midnight, were in stable condition. The state-run New China News Agency said all nine were conscious and could say their name and hometown, but their bodies had suffered from being soaked for so long. Television footage showed at least one miner was brought out barefoot.
China Central Television said some miners managed to attach themselves to a wall with their belts when the water rushed in, and they hung there for three days before getting into a mining cart that floated by.

The miners had been trapped since March 28 when workers digging tunnels broke into a water-filled abandoned shaft.
Before rescuers heard tapping noises from below Friday, they had feared this would be China's deadliest mine disaster in more than two years.

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