6 Nov 2011

Last miners rescued

9:14 pm on 6 November 2011

Emergency teams in central China have rescued the remaining 45 miners who were trapped underground following a cave-in.

They were trapped for 36 hours in the Qianqiu colliery in the city of Sanmenxia in Henan province.

The BBC reports eight miners were rescued on Friday while 14 escaped soon after the accident late on Thursday.

Officials said eight miners were killed in the cave-in, which occurred after a minor earthquake.

State broadcaster CCTV On Saturday showed images of miners being pulled out on stretchers with towels wrapped around their eyes to protect them from the sun's glare.

The initial rescue operation was reportedly hampered by coal dust following an explosion.

Seventy five miners were working in the pit 480 metres below the surface down when an explosion occurred.

An earthquake with a magnitude of 2.9 occurred shortly before.

Last week a gas explosion at a mine in neighbouring Hunan province killed 29 people.