The media in China is turbulent: 11 workers trapped in the rubble of a gold mine named Hoshan in eastern China’s Shandong province were rescued this morning two weeks later in the rubble.
According to local news channel CCTV, the mine shaft collapsed following an explosion two weeks ago, trapping within it – at a depth of 540 meters, 22 of the workers who were in the area. Rescue crews who jumped to the scene were able to find that at least 12 gold miners were trapped under the rubble, saying that they had been under the rubble for 10 days and today they had managed to drill new holes inside them.
“Rising water levels are endangering our lives,” the miners explained to rescue crews, in a note they managed to launch up using a metal cable thrown at them by the rescuers.
As a result of the explosion, one worker died, while several managed to reach the hospital on their own – but all the other miners waited in the rubble for evacuation, suffering various degrees of injury. “They wrote in a note that 12 of them survived, and some were injured. They also said they were surrounded by water and urgently needed food and medicine supplies.
Traces of 10 more miners were lost by the hour in the rubble.
Using three trenches dug in the mine area, the rescuers sent food, medicine, paper and pencils to the trapped miners. Chen Fei, a senior official at the municipality where the mine is located, told the press that the big problem for the rescue forces at the moment is the type of land around the mine – which is made of granite. “This is soil that is difficult to advance in excavations, so our progress is very slow. In the shaft there is a lot of water that can flow into the development, and drown the miners trapped inside.”
The mayor and secretary of the Communist Party were fired following the slow pace of the rescue, and local police began investigating the circumstances of the explosion.