Two South Korean miners who were trapped for nine days in a collapsed zinc mine in the east of the country were rescued alive.
Local television footage showed the miners leaving the mine on Friday (4) with the help of emergency teams and finishing a complex rescue operation.
When the Bonghwa mining accident (east) occurred on October 26, the two men were trapped in a vertical hole about 190 meters deep.
The survivors, aged 62 and 56, are in stable condition, officials said.
They added that they lit a fire for warmth and set up a plastic tent inside the tunnel.
Firefighter Lim Yoon-sook said the survivors “had instant coffee with them and said they used it as food.” “They were also said to endure by drinking water that fell into the hole,” he added.
While they were happy to save the relatives, they still could not believe the result of the operation.
“I just shouted: Dad!” Park Geun-hyeong, son of one of the survivors, said he remembers the moment they were reunited.
“It still feels surreal,” says Lim, the nephew of the other survivor, who came out of the mine wearing an eye patch after all those days in the dark.
The good news came during national mourning in South Korea over the deaths of more than 150 people in a riot at a Halloween event party in Seoul last week.
Chairman Yoon Suk-yeol posted a message on Facebook on Saturday (5) stating that the recovery was “really miraculous”.
“Thank you, and thank you again, for getting back safely from the crossroads between life and death,” he wrote.
source: Noticias
