11 trapped miners saved after 6 days
Eleven Chinese miners trapped underground for nearly six days by a tunnel collapse ate paper and chewed on a boiled leather belt to ease their hunger, local media said today.
The miners were pulled from the illegal iron and gold mine in northern China early Sunday, the Beijing News said, after a tunnel collapsed Dec. 3.
“At first, we ate newspaper pages when we got hungry, then orange peel,” the paper quoted Wu Pengyong, a 33-year-old miner, as saying.
China has the world’s deadliest mining industry with thousands of miners perishing in gas explosions, collapses and floods every year. Scores die in rescue attempts launched by mine bosses seeking to cover up accidents at illegally run mines.
Authorities have detained 33 coal mine managers and officials after they delayed reporting the accident for five hours and tried to launch their own rescue.
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