11 miners have been lifted to safety two
weeks after an explosion trapped them
600 meters below ground
at a gold mine in china the dramatic
rescue operation has been gathering pace
with specialist teams racing to reach
the men
who are still trapped 22 in total were
cut off after the blast in the mine
in shandong province one of the miners
was confirmed dead
several days ago
a breakthrough after two weeks of
intense rescue efforts
this man grateful to be alive his eyes
shielded after he emerged from
underground
he could walk but others were too weak
to stand
were their lifelines vital supplies
including food
water and medicine were lowered to the
miners
a psychologist also provided support to
those trapped
the explosion happened in an air
ventilator shaft
after major blockages suddenly fell to
the bottom
rescuers were able to reach a man
trapped alone at 630 meters underground
the others one of whom died were found
at 540 meters
10 more people remain unaccounted for
life detectors are being sent down to
locate them
nine managers have reportedly been
detained for failing to report the blast
for more than 24
hours it's a dangerous line of work in
china
nearly 600 mining related deaths were
reported
last year alone
correspondent fabian krechmer joins me
from beijing now with more fabian
what do we know about the condition of
the miners who have been rescued
well the first miner who was rescued he
is in a very weak
condition and i'm quoting the officials
here and
here he's there was no communication
with him no
extra food so actually it's a miracle
that he survived and
um among the other 10 rescue workers
they were in a group and
nine of them are supposed to be in a
relatively stable and good
health condition because they were also
sent additional food they even requested
on their last day underground a sausage
meal so actually they were really um
cared for because the rescue team
established a communication line with
them
but one of those 10 miners he
is supposed to suffer an injury but i
don't know how severe this injury is
fabian we understand there are still 10
minors who are
unaccounted for do we know what hope
there is for these miners who are still
underground well there's hope but a
little hope
um they are believed to be in the
so-called sixth central um
section of the mine but um the rescue
team does not
is not sure if they are really there and
they are also not sure until what time
they can reach
this section of the mine so um i mean
time is running out they are trapped
there since the 10th of january
and uh yeah i would say the chances of
survival are getting
bleaker and fabian what are the chinese
authorities saying
uh moving on from the rescue operation
what are chinese authorities saying
about the cause of the accident
and indeed the response to it from the
mining company
well i mean they're criticizing the
mining company because they have not
reported
the incident for almost 30 hours that's
a big scandal but that's actually
happening quite often because usually
those um companies they will try to
solve
those things by their own um and the big
problem is we don't really know
how this happened because uh reporting
here is quite controlled by the state
they
usually hand out um orders on how to
report it and
whether to report it and this explosion
the reason why um
this whole tragedy happened is
unexplained for so we don't really know
why bobby kletschman in beijing thank
you so much