Four miners rescued after trapped in east China mine for 36 days

Four Chinese miners who had been trapped down a mine in China’s eastern province of Shandong for more than a month were rescued Friday.

Media reports said they were being examined in a local hospital.

The miners were caught in a collapsed gypsum mine near the town of Pingyi for 36 days.

The four named by CCTV as Hao Zhicheng, aged 50, Li Qiusheng, aged 39, Guan Qingji, 58, and 36-year-old Hua Mingxi, were among 29 workers trapped when the mine collapsed on December 25. Of the 29 miners, 11 were rescued the following day. One miner was pronounced dead.

Meanwhile, the fate of 13 miners remains unknown.

The first signs of life were detected more than 200 meters underground on December 30.

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.

However, complicated geological conditions prolonged the rescue operation into weeks.

Officials said the search would continue for the miners still missing.

The mine owner drowned himself by jumping into a mine filled with water several days after the incident took place.

The incident was the latest in a long list of industrial accidents in China with strict safety rules and the largest population on the globe.

Press TV’s website can also be accessed at the following alternate addresses:

www.presstv.co.uk