Miracle still happens, at least 115 lives saved!

[napman]

XIANGNING, China ? Rescuers paddled the rafts with their hands in the dark, flooded mine shaft, letting out air so the inflatable vessels could squeeze through tight passages. From deep in the tunnel came the call: "Can you get me out of here?"

Replied a rescuer: "Since we got in, we will definitely be able to take you out of here."

And they did, pulling 115 miners to safety Monday, their eighth day trapped in the northern China mine.

Emergency teams were trying to reach 38 others still in the Wangjialing mine as of Monday night.

Even so, the rescue was a rare piece of good news for a coal-mining industry that is notoriously the world's deadliest. Chinese officials called it "a miracle." State TV repeatedly broadcast images of cheering and crying rescuers ? a cathartic moment for the country observing "grave-sweeping day," a traditional time for remembering the dead.

"This is probably one of the most amazing rescues in the history of mining anywhere," said David Feickert, a coal mine safety adviser to the Chinese government.

Some miners told rescuers of eating tree bark and drinking the filthy water to survive. Some had strapped themselves to the shafts' walls with their belts ? or similarly suspended themselves using their clothes ? to avoid drowning while they slept. Some climbed into a mining cart that floated by.

One miner "showed us the sawdust from his pocket. He told me it was hard to chew," the leader of one of the rescue teams, Chen Yongsheng, told reporters. Chen gave the most detailed, firsthand account of the rescue efforts and his thrill at reaching the miners. When the rafts got stuck in the narrow shaft, Chen said his team floated bags of a nutrient solution down the tunnel to provide sustenance for the trapped miners.

Work crews had been racing to pump out the flooded mine since March 28, when workers digging a tunnel for the new mine accidentally breached an old shaft filled with water. A graphic on state TV showed water inundating the V-shaped tunnel, blocking miners who were on higher ground but deeper inside the shaft from escaping.

Rescuers had no signs the miners were alive until April 2, when tapping sounds from deep underground were heard on a metal pipe lowered into the shaft. They sent milk, glucose and letters of encouragement down the pipe to sustain the miners.

But the high murky waters turned back rescuers Saturday, seemingly until more pumping would clear enough space to use the inflatable rafts. The rescue teams spotted lights from miners' headlamps swaying in the tunnel.

Then one by one, the first survivors were floated by raft toward the mine entrance early Monday, where medical teams waited by the water's edge.

"They could answer questions and use simple speech," said Dr. Qin Zhongyang, who checked the men as they were lifted from the rafts. "When I saw the first survivor, I felt so happy."

Within hours, the trickle turned into a wave of rescues. Dozens of miners emerged, put on stretchers ??? their bodies wrapped in blankets and their eyes covered to shield them from the light ??? and carried to waiting ambulances. One miner clapped and reached his blackened hands to grasp those of his rescuers on either side of the stretcher.

"This morning, we wished for a miracle to happen again," said Liu Dezheng, a spokesman for the rescue operation. "Six hours later, miracles have really happened."

[karn]

เป็นเรื่องที่น่ายินดีเป็นอย่างยิ่งครับ และขอให้ปาฏิหาริย์เกิดขึ้นกับอีก 38 ชีวิตที่ยังคงติดค้างอยู่ด้วยเถิด

[ยอดเยี่ยม]

ผมดูข่าวต่างประเทศบ่อยๆ..เจอข่าวคนงานเหมืองในประเทศจีนที่มีสภาพแวดล้อมและคุณภาพชีวิตที่แย่มากๆ
รู้สึกสงสารครับ..ยังไงชีวิตก็ต้องปากกัดตีนถีบ ขาหนีบตูดดันต่อไป..เศร้า

เมืองไทยไม่เคยเจอข่าวแบบนี้เลย (อาจเป็นเพราะไม่มีเหมืองให้ทำแล้ว)

[Maew]

ใช่ครับ คุณภาพชีวิตคนงานที่เมืองจีนแย่มาก
ผมเคยไปโรงงานทำหม้อสเตนเลสในจีน มืดๆทึมๆ ความปลอดภัยต่ำ
เลยรู้สึกว่า ข้าวของราคาถูกจากเมืองจีน ก็ต้องแลกมากับต้นทุนคุณภาพชีวิตของประชาชนด้วย

ก็หวังว่า คงจะดีขึ้นเรื่อยๆ และขอให้คนงานเหมืองได้รับความช่วยเหลือด้วยครับ

[karn]

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