Five bodies found after rescue of 115 from flooded mine

Beijing - Rescue workers have recovered the bodies of five miners, one day after they found 115 miners alive despite spending eight days trapped in a flooded coal mine in China's Shanxi province, state media said on Tuesday.

The workers brought the five bodies to the surface late Monday and were still searching for another 33 miners missing since water poured into the Wangjialing mine on March 28, the official Xinhua news agency reported.

Most of the 115 survivors were in a "stable condition" in local hospitals and able to communicate with medical staff, earlier reports said.

The rescue workers had spent nearly one week pumping water out of the mine 24 hours a day before the first team of divers and engineers was able to enter the flooded shaft on Saturday.

Most of the survivors were rescued from a platform above which workers had drilled a vertical hole last week to ensure an air supply and enable them to send packs of glucose solution to the trapped miners, rescue officials said.

"It is a miracle," Xinhua quoted Wei Fusheng, one of the rescue workers, as saying after finding so many miners alive on Monday.

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/317275,five-bodies-found-after-rescue-of-115-from-flooded-mine.html.