Miners rescued after 5-day ordeal underground

By Yang Lifei  |   2008-8-6  |     ONLINE EDITION

EIGHT trapped miners were lifted to safety in northern Shaanxi's Shenmu County yesterday evening, five days after a roof collapsed at Zhaojialiang Coal Mine.

One victim remains trapped but rescue workers have confirmed his location and relief work is ongoing, according to Xinhuanet.com.

The eight miners received physical checks at two hospitals and doctors said they were in good condition, the report said.

The accident happened around 3:30pm on July 31. Thirty-eight workers were underground at the time of the accident. Twenty-nine miners were lifted to safety that day, but nine were trapped.

Shang Huimin, deputy director of Shenmu County Publicity Department, said the first coal miner walked out of the pithead on his own at 6:55pm and went to the coal mine office 50 meters away. ``About 10 minutes later, his seven colleagues were helped out of the pithead by rescue workers,'' Shang told the Website. ``They all looked well. They were holding bread and milk that was sent underground by workers through a ventilation pipe.''

The 35-square-kilometer coal mine is privately owned, licensed and began operations in October 1998. It has an annual production capacity of 150,000 tons, Xinhua said.

Shenmu County, which borders the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region in the north and Shanxi Province to the east, has known coal reserves of 50 billion tons.