In this photo released by China’s Xinhua News Agency, rescuers drill a new channel at the explosion site of a gold mine in Qixia City, east China’s Shandong Province, Monday, Jan. 18, 2021. Chinese state media say 12 out of 22 workers trapped for a week by an explosion in the gold mine are alive, as hundreds of rescuers seek to bring them to safety.
In this photo released by Xinhua News Agency, rescuers carry a miner who was trapped in a gold mine in Qixia City in east China’s Shandong Province, Sunday, Jan. 24, 2021. Rescuers in China on Sunday lifted several trapped miners to the surface who were trapped for two weeks after an explosion in a northern gold mine, state media reported.
In this photo released by Xinhua News Agency, rescuers carry a miner who was trapped in a gold mine in Qixia City in east China’s Shandong Province, Sunday, Jan. 24, 2021. Rescuers in China on Sunday lifted several trapped miners to the surface who were trapped for two weeks after an explosion in a northern gold mine, state media reported.
In this photo released by Xinhua News Agency, rescuers carry a miner who was trapped in a mine to an ambulance in Qixia City in east China’s Shandong Province, Sunday, Jan. 24, 2021. Eleven workers trapped for two weeks by an explosion inside a Chinese gold mine were brought safely to the surface on Sunday.
BEIJING (AP) — Eleven workers trapped for two weeks by an explosion inside a Chinese gold mine were brought safely to the surface on Sunday.
State broadcaster CCTV showed workers being hauled up one-by-one in baskets on Sunday afternoon, their eyes shielded to protect them after so many days in darkness.
One worker was reported to have died from a head wound following the blast that deposited massive amounts of rubble in the shaft on Jan. 10 while the mine was still under construction.
The fate of 10 others who were underground at the time is unknown. Authorities have detained mine managers for delaying reporting the accident.
The official China Daily said on its website that seven of the workers were able to walk to ambulances on their own.
State broadcaster CCTV showed numerous ambulances parked alongside engineering vehicles at the mine in Qixia, a jurisdiction under Yantai in Shandong province.
Increased supervision has improved safety in China’s mining industry, which used to average 5,000 deaths per year. However, demand for coal and precious metals continues to prompt corner-cutting, and two accidents in Chongqing last year killed 39 miners.
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