11 trapped miners rescued from gold mine in China

Beijing: Eleven miners, trapped underground for two weeks following a blast in a gold mine in east China's Shandong Province, have been rescued, the state media reported on Sunday.

Authorities have been racing to dig out 22 miners trapped underground in the partially built gold mine in the city of Qixia in Shandong Province, since the explosion blocked their exit on January 10.

The rescuers set free two workers on Sunday, bringing the number of rescued miners to 11, the state-run Xinhua news agency reported.

The first miner was rescued from the mine in the morning. The worker, said to be in "extremely weak condition", was rushed to the hospital for treatment, the report said.

Currently, 633 people and 407 equipment are at the site for rescue operations.

Before Sunday, rescuers had established contact with only 10 of the miners, who were in good physical and psychological condition. Another is believed to have been dead, the report said, adding the deceased worker had been in a coma.

Efforts have been underway to reach the workers since the blast occurred about 240 meters from the mine's entrance, but Chinese officials said on Thursday it could take 15 days to drill through 70 tons of debris trapping many of the

miners.