Miracle

115 Rescued from Chinese Mine

Trapped in flooded mine since March 28.

After being trapped for more than a week, 115 miners were rescued from a flooded coal mine in northern China on Monday (38 are thought to still be stuck inside). Crowds cheered as the workers were brought to the surface wrapped in blankets, and Chinese TV carried their rescue live. The survivors were immediately rushed to the hospital, where they are in stable condition. A team of 261 miners were working in the Wangjialing site when water rushed in March 28; 108 were immediately pulled out. Others hooked their mining belts to the walls of the shaft when the flooding began, and remained suspended until a mining cart floated by. They hopped in. Meanwhile, 50 teams, totaling 200 people, worked day and night to pump out water and check for gas. Sunday night, rescuers noticed swaying lamp lights inside the mine—a sign of life. Chinese workers often toil in unsafe mines; last year, 2,631 people died in accidents. That’s some improvement over 2002, when 6,995 were killed.