XIANGNING, China — Dozens of miners have been pulled alive from a flooded coal mine in northern China more than a week after 153 workers were trapped.
State television says 86 people are expected to be pulled from the mine, in addition to the first nine soaked miners who were rescued early this morning. The state-run Xinhua News Agency says more than 90 survivors are expected.
A live broadcast showed miners wrapped in blankets being carried to ambulances, which were speeding from the scene toward waiting medical teams in hospitals nearby. Before rescuers heard tapping noises from below Friday, they had feared this would be China’s deadliest mine disaster in more than two years.
China Central Television showed images of the first nine miners being taken into the hospital in Hejin, about 30 miles from the mine. Their eyes were covered to shield them from the bright lights. Some were hooked up to intravenous drips.
The official Xinhua News Agency reported that their blood pressure and heart rates were normal after spending 179 hours trapped underground. It quoted one of the survivors, Li Guoyu, 38, from Henan province in central China, as saying they had gone without water because they were worried about drinking the dirty water flowing in the tunnel.
The miners had been trapped since workers broke a wall into a water-filled abandoned shaft, flooding the mine in Shanxi province in northern China. About 3,000 people have worked around the clock using 14 pumps to suck the water out of the mine.
A glimmer of hope emerged Friday when rescuers heard knocking on a pipe that had been drilled into the mine. But no sounds were heard after that as workers frantically pumped water out and sent divers into the mine to scout conditions.
Finally, at 40 minutes past midnight today the first survivor was brought to the surface. A crowd of people outside the entrance of the mine shaft clapped as the miners were carried out.
China’s coal mines are the world’s deadliest. Accidents killed 2,631 coal miners in China last year, down from 6,995 deaths in 2002, the most dangerous year on record, according to the State Administration of Coal Mine Safety.
