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First Chinese gold miner rescued after two weeks

24 January 2021 12:27 (UTC +04:00)

Rescuers in China have freed the first of a group of miners who have been trapped 600m underground for two weeks, APA reports citing BBC.

They have been trapped since an explosion closed the entrance tunnel to the Hushan gold mine in Shandong province on 10 January.

Eleven miners initially survived the collapse, but one later died.

A telephone connection has been set up and medicine and food have been lowered via a long, narrow tunnel.

The cause of the explosion that sealed the mine entrance is still not known.

The miner brought to the surface was "extremely weak", said a post on CCTV's Weibo microblog site. He was blindfolded to protect his eyes from the light and was immediately taken to hospital for treatment.

This man had been trapped in a different part of the gold mine to the main group of 10 who have been receiving food and medicine for days.

The tunnel being bored out to reach them is expected to take weeks to dig.

The fate of a second group of 11 miners trapped by the blast is unclear - authorities have been unable to communicate with them despite lowering food and messages into other areas of the mine.

The group discovered alive told rescuers they had established communication with a lone miner about 100m below them, but had since lost touch with him.