CRI听力: 115 Survivors Rescued from Flooded Coal Mine in China

60 of the miners who were amazingly pulled alive from a flooded mine in Shanxi are being transferred this hour (7am) to hospitals in major centers in north China. Late yesterday, 115 of the men were freed from the flooded mine after being trapped underground for more than a week. 38 still remain missing. As we hear from Chen Xi, their remarkable story of survival -- which includes reports of them eating tree bark to keep their energy up -- has prompted officials to call the rescue a miracle

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Survivors with clothes covering their eyes were lifted out one-by-one, sparking cheers among the hundreds of rescue workers who have been racing to save them.

It is reported that the miners, taken to hospitals in the vicinity of the Wangjialing mine, are now in stable condition.

Liu Dezheng, spokesman for the Rescue Operation Headquarters.

"Our wishes have really come true, and we have won the battle to successfully rescue 115 miners, although there are still some miners trapped in the mine shaft. This is going to be a new page in China's history of accident rescue operations."

Over 3,000 rescuers have worked around the clock to pump water from the Wangjialing coal mine, in an effort to lower the water levels enough to enter the shaft and reach the 153 miners trapped underground.

After nine miners were initially rescued earlier, rescuers have successfully pulled out more miners.

Most of the survivors were brought out from a working platform, where crews had drilled a vertical hole last week, which has ensured oxygen in the flooded pit.

The rescuing teams were later able to send down glucose nutrients to the trapped dehydrated and malnourished miners.

Chen Yongheng, the leader of one of the rescue teams, described how one miner survived.

"He just ate sawdust and tree bark and drank the murky water to survive. He showed us later the sawdust from his pocket. He told me that it is hard to chew it, but he survived by eating that and he was in quite good condition when we found him."

The team captain added that two or three of the underground mine platforms had not yet been checked. Conditions remained complicated by high murky water.

But Chen Yongheng remained optimistic about the rescue of those who remain trapped underground.

"I think this is the most efficient rescue operation in my career, and we've had a very good result. I hope we can have a good result in rescuing the remaining miners still trapped in the mine shaft."

In addition, a team of experienced medical experts organized by China's Ministry of Health, many of whom were dispatched to other disaster relief efforts around the world, have arrived in Shanxi to aid the rescue work.

For CRI, I'm Chen Xi.