A dozen Chinese gold miners trapped thousands of meters underground for more than a week have sent an urgent note saying that four are injured and the others are in dire condition, according to reports.
“We urgently need medicines, painkillers, tape, external anti-inflammatories and three people have high blood pressure,” says the note, reported Agence France-Presse.
It was not known whether 10 other miners were still alive, according to the Xinhua Nerws agency.
Twenty-two workers were trapped some 2,000 feet below the surface after an explosion eight days ago near the city of Qixia, in eastern Shandong province.
After days without any sign of life, rescue workers heard raids on Sunday afternoon as they drilled the mine shaft.
“We hope that rescue workers do not stop so that we can still hope. Thank you, ”said the crumpled, water-stained note written in pencil.
The writer asked rescuers to send medicine from his car and warned that there was a lot of water where the miners are trapped.
Rescuers were later able to speak to some of the miners after dropping a phone line, officials said at a news conference on Monday.
The hope of a miraculous rescue sparked a wave of sympathy and encouragement on social media.
The hashtag “incident with the Qixia gold mine” has been viewed 130 million times on the popular social media site Weibo.
“I saw the note while watching the morning news and started to cry,” wrote a Weibo user. “I hope they will rescue the trapped workers as soon as possible.”
Operation managers were arrested for not reporting the accident for more than a day.
The mine was under construction at the time of the explosion, which occurred on January 10.
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