IN a country where seven workers a day die in mines, there was little cause for optimism. More than a week after millions of litres of water flooded north China's Wangjialing pit, even relatives abandoned hope for the loved ones trapped inside.
But on Monday rescuers hailed a miracle as they pulled more than 100 miners to safety after eight days trapped underground. They had survived by strapping themselves to the walls, eating sawdust and sheer tenacity.
“This is probably one of the most amazing rescues in the history of mining anywhere,” David Feickert, a mine safety adviser to the Chinese government, told the Associated Press.
Officials had feared the flood in Shanxi province would be the most deadly mine disaster since 2007. Instead, rescuers wept, cheered and embraced as colleagues carried out survivors on stretchers, swathed in blankets and with cloth draped across their eyes to stop light damage after days of darkness. By mid-afternoon, 115 had emerged and teams were still seeking the remaining 38 trapped in the pit.
A survivor clapped and reached out with blackened hands to clasp his rescuers as he was rushed to one of the scores of ambulances waiting near the pithead.
“It is a miracle. It is worth all of our efforts without sleep for several days,” one worker, Wei Fusheng, told Chinese media before bursting into tears.
A 3,000-strong force had been toiling round the clock to save the miners after water inundated the pit on 28 March, when tunnellers broke through the wall of a flooded, disused shaft. A survivor described the terror as a wall of water rushed through the pit like a tidal wave. He was one of 108 who scrambled to safety.
Others, unable to reach the surface, lashed themselves to the wall with belts — terrified they would fall asleep, drop into the water and drown. They dangled for three days, until they spotted a cart floating past and managed to climb in.
Hundreds of metres above them, a mammoth rescue effort had swung into operation. More than a dozen pumps began the slow work of extracting the 140,000 cubic metres of water that had poured into the mine — the equivalent of 56 Olympic-size swimming pools, according to officials.
After days of no contact with the trapped workers, the prospects of finding survivors seemed dim. But on Friday, as the water level began to drop, rescuers heard sounds of tapping on a metal pipe — raising hopes that at least some miners were still alive. The teams sent down packages of glucose and letters of encouragement.
“Dear fellow workers, the party central committee, the state council and the whole nation have been concerned for your safety all the time... [We] are racing the clock and going all out to save you. You must have confidence and hold on to the last!” one read.
Divers entered the mine at the weekend but struggled to make progress in the high, murky water. It was only last night — as the water level dropped several feet further — that rescuers entered the pit and spotted swaying lamplights. Those belonged to a group of nine miners who were plucked from the shaft shortly after midnight.
— The Guardian, London