China: rescue of miners trapped in a gold mine keeps the country in suspense
Audio 00:56
The rescue of minors, in Qixia, Shandong province, on January 13.
AFP - STR
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8 min
China is suspended from the hope of seeing alive the 22 miners trapped for a week in a gold mine in Qixia, Shandong province, in the east of the country.
Signs of life were detected Sunday, January 17, and this Monday morning a new drilling was carried out to try to come into contact with the prisoners in the basement.
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From our correspondent in Beijing
,
Stéphane Lagarde
Cries and tapping in the night of Shandong.
The silhouettes in orange fleece suits await a response from the bowels of the Wucalong gold mine, like all of China for that matter, this Monday morning, which once again held its breath in front of the images of the rescue broadcast by the media of 'State.
The explosion took place on January 10, the mine under construction collapsed.
22 minors are inside, some of them sent signs of life, first echoes on the pipes on Sunday, and then a package (medicine, flashlight, food, paper and pen) which stay down at the end of the wire rope.
Then the latter rises shortly before midnight in front of the amazed eyes of the rescuers.
At the end of the line, there is a plastic bottle, with a
message inside
: "
There are five of us in midsection # 5, one in midsection # 6, four are injured, situation no. is not clear to the other ten
, ”they say.
The message also states: “
We are all exhausted, we urgently need painkillers, bandages, anti-inflammatories.
In addition, three of us have high blood pressure, we also urgently need antihypertensive drugs.
I have two types of these drugs in my car, please send them to us.
We are trapped and smoky from the explosion and the floods.
Please don't stop your research, you are our hope.
Thank you so much.
"
The sound of hope.
It's been a week since 22 miners were trapped at the bottom of a #mine of gold in Qixia, in the province of Shandong in the east of China.
For the first time, rescuers heard noises coming from the depths, reports the agency @XHNews this Sunday noon.
https://t.co/81cYOKCpKS
- Stéphane Lagarde (@StephaneLagarde) January 17, 2021
This Monday morning, after 5 a.m., a new drilling was carried out to try to reach the buried miners according to the Xinhua agency.
The world's leading gold producer, China had more than 3,000 gold mines in 2016. This morning the pipes were no longer responding.
January 10, 2:00
PM An explosion occurred at the Wucalong gold mine in Qixia, Shandong, trapping 22 workers underground.
January 11,
20:05 Wucalong Gold Mine reported the situation to the Qixia Emergency Management Office.
January 17, 13:56
Drill hole # 3 is passing.
As I hit the drill pipe, I heard a downhole response, with 9 sounds at most.
It is initially believed that there are signs of life.
Jan 17, 10:12 PM
Drill hole # 3 has started to bring in supplies.
A lead sinker carries a pull cord and lowers it slowly, along with a flashlight, nutrient solution, medicine, paper and pen, etc.
January 17th, 10:46 PM
Someone obviously pulled on the wire rope when the supplies were finished.
January 17, 11:20 PM
Rescuers slowly pulled out the wire rope and found that workers trapped in the well had removed all supplies, put a note updating their status in a plastic bottle, wrapped it in layers , then tied it with duct tape to the wire rope and sent it up.
The tape that wraps the plastic bottle is very strongly tangled, which firefighters say shows that the physical strength of the trapped person is relatively good.
January 18, 05:03
Following the opening of borehole # 3 at
1:56
p.m. on the 17th, penetration of borehole # 1 was carried out at 5:03 am on the 18th, opening another rescue channel for the rescue .
5:15, January 18
Rescuers began tapping the drill rod.
After 15 minutes of sampling, at 5:30 p.m., no response from the background staff was received.
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