Beijing: Nine miners were on Monday rescued alive from a Chinese coal mine, more than a week after the underground facility was flooded trapping 153 people, a state media report said.
The nine survivors lifted out of the shaft were immediately sent to a nearby hospital for medical treatment.
State TV announced rescue teams who went down the mine for the second time in three days managed to bring out nine miners.
Earlier, the rescue teams were guided by swaying lamp lights were seen at the other side of the V-shaped shaft of flooded Wangjialing mine in pit in northern Shanxi province colliery.
"Several lamp lights were seen swaying at the other side of the shaft," drainage workers who have been piping out water since March 29 told Xinhua.
The bottom of the V-shaped shaft had emerged as the water level was falling, drainage workers said. Rescuers are approaching the places where the lamp lights are from.
Chinese President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao conveyed sympathy to the nine coal miners.
Over 3000 rescue workers were deployed to save the 153 miners from the flooded mine which was considered to be one of the worst in recent times.
Earlier in the day, the owner of a central China coal mine, where at least 19 miners died in an explosion five days ago has surrendered to police.
About 90 miners were working underground when a gas explosion occurred in a coal pit privately owned by Guomin Mining Co, Ltd in Yichuan County, Henan Province.
At least 24 people were believed still trapped underground as of Sunday, said Gao Xiangxing, the headquarters deputy director.
Mine company owner Wang Guozheng disappeared after the blast. Police would give no other details on when or how Wang turned himself in.
Wang was also the head of Baiyao Village where the mine was located. A deputy manager and four safety inspectors had also disappeared after the accident, making it difficult to identify the exact number of the trapped workers and the location of the blast, said Zhang Zhenqing, director with the county administration of coal industry.
The county work safety authorities ordered the mine to suspend operations after a gas outburst in May last year, and production since then was illegal, Zhang said.
Police said they were still searching for the other five mine officials. Luo Lin, head of the State Administration of Work Safety, read a telegraph of Vice Premier Zhang Dejiang on the site. In the letter, Zhang expressed sympathy to the survivors on behalf of Chinese President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao and ordered rescue workers to race against time and go all out to continue the rescue work.
Underground water gushed into the pit of under-construction Wangjialing Coal Mine at about 1:40 pm last Sunday. Altogether 261 miners were working underground, and 108 were lifted to safety.
PTI
