115 miners rescued from Chinese mine

More than 100 Chinese miners were pulled out alive on Monday after being trapped for over a week in a flooded coal mine, where some ate sawdust and strapped themselves to the shafts’ walls with their belts to avoid drowning while they slept.

Miners wrapped in blankets, some with their light-sensitive eyes covered but their feet bare, were hurried to waiting ambulances that sped wailing to nearby hospitals.

A rescue spokesman said 115 survivors had been pulled out as of 4:30 pm local time.

“A miracle has finally happened,” Liu Dezheng told reporters after the first nine miners were taken out shortly after midnight.