China witnessed miracles in its mining rescue history Monday as 115 workers were pulled out alive after being trapped for over a week in a flooded coal mine, where some ate bark and drank murky underground water to survive.

"Two miracles were created in this rescue operation, one is the miracle of life, the other is the miracle of rescue," said Luo Lin, head of the State Administration of Work Safety.

Rescuers still held out hope that the other 38 trapped workers could survive, eight days after the flooding happened in the Wangjialing Coal Mine, which was under construction, in northern Shanxi Province.

Applause burst from the crowd from time to time at the shaft entrance when survivors were taken out from the pit one after another -- the first was brought to the ground at 00:39 a.m. lying on a stretcher carried by four rescuers. Some rescuers were seen in tears.

"I have always believed that you would come and save me," a miner Wang Quanjie with his eyes covered told rescuers by his side in a feeble voice after being taken out of the pit.

"Thank you all! It was too uncomfortable to be soaked in water for so long," another survivor said.

"Rescuers are continuing the search for 38 trapped miners. The rescue work is still challenging," said Liu Dezheng, a spokesman of the rescue headquarters.

Chinese President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao extended their regards to the survivors and paid tributes to all rescuers late Monday.

Hu and Wen ordered the rescue headquarters to step up efforts and go all out to save the other trapped people.

They also required health workers to provide "the most considerate treatment" to the rescued.

Miracles hailed

"It is a miracle that so many people can survive. It is worth all our efforts without sleep for several days," a 55-year-old rescuer Wei Fusheng said while bursting into tears.

"They are very lucky, indeed," he said.

The flooding happened at about 1:40 p.m. March 28 when underground water gushed into the pit of Wangjialing Coal Mine, which straddles Xiangning County, of Linfen City, and Hejin City, of Yuncheng City. Altogether 261 miners were working underground, and only 108 were lifted safely to the surface.

The flooding took place when workers digging tunnels broke through into an old shaft filled with water.

About 3,000 rescuers were mobilized just days after the incident, and the number has climbed to 5,000 by Monday. They have been racing the clock over the past week to pump underground water, estimated at more than 130,000 cubic meters and morer, and drill drainage channel.

Rescuers sent glucose, letters of encouragement and others down the 250-meter pit after hearing tapping on the drill pipe from underground on April 2. But no further signs of life were detected the next day and even after divers were dispatched to enter the shaft to search for survivors.

"Scientific methods and technology used in the rescue have ensured the miners rescued alive after being trapped underground for a week," Shanxi Party chief Zhang Baoshun said.

Most of the survivors were brought out from a working platform, where rescuers had drilled a vertical hole last week. The hole has ensured oxygen in the flooded pit. Rescuers later sent down glucose to the trapped ones through the hole.

Eating bark

Some of the trapped workers had relied on eating bark of pine wood and drinking murky underground water to survive during the ordeal, Chen Yongsheng told reporters Monday.

"The trapped miners are clever. Several of them gathered in a group and sway their mine lamps in turns to enable themselves discovered," Chen said.

It was none other than the swaying lamp lights seen from the V-shaped lane Sunday evening that led to the rescue of the first group of nine survivors.

"When they were saved by rescuers, the power supply for their lamps was still very sufficient," he said.

Vice Premier Zhang Dejiang sent a message of regards after the first nine survivors were saved.

Wang Gensheng, the rescuer who first found the trapped people, said the first thing he and his colleagues did after seeing them was to give them comfort.

"One of them asked me: could you get us out of here? I told them: that's what I'm doing here," Wang said.

"I am very, very excited when I saw the trapped workers were still alive. The first thing that came across to my mind was to tell the whole world about the great news," he said.

Stable condition

Most of the rescued workers, who were being treated at five local hospitals, were in stable condition, but 26 were described in "serious" conditions, rescuers and doctors said.

The Shanxi provincial government and medical experts dispatched by the Health Ministry have decided to transfer 60 of them to key hospitals in the provincial capital Taiyuan Tuesday for better medical treatment.

Liu Qiang, a medical expert involved in the rescue, said after being trapped for more than 179 hours, the survivors are very weak and suffer from malnutrition. Many have severe dehydration and skin infections from being in the water so long, he said.

Doctors have prepared treatment plans for each of the survivors.

"How fantastic to be up on ground again," said a 27-year-old survivor at the Shanxi Aluminium Plant Hospital.

"I was scared to be underground -- without water or food. It is like in heaven now," he said.

Some of the 36 survivors being treated at the Shanxi Aluminium Plant Hospital have been able to eat fluid food such as soup by late Monday. Some others said they felt hungry and wanted to eat more.

"I am inspired by their strong desire to be alive," said a surgeon, Wu Shuangyan, at the hospital.

"Helping the survivors makes me feel very much gratified," she said.

Currently, rescuers are still searching for the other 38 trapped, whose destiny is still unknown.

The number of rescuers underground had risen up to 2,000, Liu Dezheng said late Monday.

Chen Yongsheng, captain of the rescue team, said rescuers haven't reached two working platforms under the pit, where the remaining trapped workers may stay.

"The room under the flooded mining shaft is small. The water surface was less than one meter below the top of the lane, where the survivors were found Monday morning," he said.

Rescuers have used five-seat kayaks to bring out the trapped miners.

The rescue headquarters said they were continuing to pump out the water.

By 9 p.m. Monday, the water level underground had dropped by 16 meters after a total of 180,000 cubic meters of water being drained from the shaft, Liu Dezheng said at news conference late Monday.

"There are still signs of life underground. We will never give up. We will do our best to take them out," he said.

(Xinhua News Agency April 6, 2010)