29 escape barefoot from flooded Chinese coal mine

[pinboy3niner]

Source: Associated Press

November 22, 2010 06:10 AM EST

BEIJING Barefoot and wrapped in white quilts, 29 miners were pulled out of a Chinese coal mine Monday after being trapped by a flood and waiting a day for rescuers to pump out water.

State broadcaster China Central Television showed medics leading out the miners, naked and with their eyes shielded from the light after 24 hours in darkness. Crowds of mine workers, reporters and others cheered as they were taken to ambulances.

Late Monday, all 29 men were in stable condition at a hospital with no serious injuries, Xinhua reported. They may have removed their clothes because wet clothing would have risked hypothermia.

Some 35 miners were initially trapped Sunday morning when waters from a nearby abandoned mine flooded a shaft in the small, privately owned Batian mine in southwest Sichuan province, the official Xinhua News Agency reported. While 13 managed to escape, another seven entered the mine trying to rescue their colleagues and became trapped, the report said.




Read more: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/huff-wires/20101122/as-china-mine-flood/